REHOBOTII  Il\  THE  PAST 


NEWMAN'S   ORATION. 


REHOBOTH    IN    THE    PAST. 


AN 


HISTORICAL  ORATION 

DELIVERED  ON  THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY,  ISOU, 

BY 

SYLVANUS   CHACE  NEWMAN,  A.  M., 

M 

MEMBER  OF   THE   RHODE   ISLAND   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY;    HONORARY  JIEMBER   OF 
THE  DORCHESTER  HISTORICAL  AND   AJJTIQUARIAN   SOCIETY;    AND    GENEA- 
LOGICAL  SECRETARY   OF    THE   BLACKSTONE   MONUMENT  ASSOCIATION. 


AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  PROCEEDINGS 

IN  SEEKONK,  [tue  Ancient  Rehoboth,] 

AT  THE    CELEBRATION    OF   THE   DAY, 

COMPLETING  TWO  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTEEN  YEARS  OF   ITS  HISTORY. 


"Behold  the  pattern  of  the  altar  of  the  L  rd,  which  oxtr  fathers  made." 

"^  Josh,  xxii.,  28. 


PAWTUCKET: 

PRINTED   BY  ROBERT   SHER5LVN,  MAIN  STREET. 

1860. 
JF 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1860,  by 

Sylvanus  Ciiace  Newman, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  Bhode  Island. 


[correspondence.] 

Seekonk,  July  G,  ISfiO. 
Dear  Sir, — 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the  celcbrR- 
tion  at  Seekonk  on  the  Ith  inst.,  holden  this  day,  the  enclosed  resolve  -was 
unanimously  adopted,  and  it  affords  me  pleasure  to  be  the  instrument  of 
communicating  the  same  to  you. 

Permit  me  also  to  express  the  sense  of  gratitude  ^vhich  the  Committee,  in 
common  with  their  fellow  citizens,  feel  for  the  most  acceptable  service  per- 
formed by  you  on  that  occasion,  and  also  i^ersonally  to  solicit  a  compliance 
with  the  very  general  wishes  of  our  inhabitants. 

With  prolound  respect,  your  obd't  servant, 

JOSEPH  BROWN. 
To  S.  C.  Newman,  Esq. 


[copy.] 

"  Ttpsoived,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  be  pre- 
sented to  S.  C.  Newman,  A.  M.,  of  Pawtucket,  for  the  interesting  and  val- 
uable Historical  Oration  delivered  by  him  at  the  Congregational  Church,  at 
Seekonk,  on  the  4th  inst. 

]'ottfl,  That  the  Chairman,  Joseph  Bro\vn,  Esq.,  be  a  Committee  to  com- 
municate the  foregoing  resolution,  and  request  a  copy  for  the  press." 

JOSEPH  BROWN,  C/iairman. 
Attest :     Wm.  Ellis,  Secretary. 


Pawtucket,  R.  I.,  July  10,  18G0. 
Dear  Sir, — 

Your  kind  note  of  the  6th  inst.,  enclosing  a  copy  of  the  resolution 
of  the  Committee  for  the  late  Festal  Gathering  in  Seekonk,  requesting  a 
copy  of  my  Oration  delivered  on  that  occasion,  has  been  received. 

I  am  under  obligations  to  the  Committee  for  their  favorable  estimate  of 
my  discourse,  and,  relying  upon  their  judgment,  cheerfully  comply  with 
their  request. 

Be  pleased  to  accept  my  acknowledgments  for  the  kind  terms  in  which 
you  have  conveyed  the  request  of  the  Committee,  and  be  assured  that  I  am, 
dear  sir. 

Respectfully  your  obt.  sorvt., 

S.  C.  NEWMAN. 
To  Joseph  Brown,  Esq.,  \ 

Chairman  of  Committee,  &c.,  ;- 

Seekonk,  Mass.  ) 


DEDICATION. 


To  THE  Inhabitants  of  my  Native  Town,  having  been 

HONORED    WITH    AN    INVITATION    FROM    THEIR    COMMITTEE    TO 
DELIVER  IT,   THIS   OrATION,   WITH  WARM    GRATITUDE    FOR  THE 

sympathizing  attention  with  which  it  was  received,  is 
Respectfully  and  affectionately 
Dedicated, 

By  their  Friend, 

S.  C.  NEWMAN. 


INTRODUCTORY    NOTE. 


The  following  Oration  is  here  printed  from  the  manuscript  as  origi- 
nally prepared  and  delivered. 

In  a  field  so  broad,  and  covering  so  large  a  portion  of  time,  it  was 
found  difiicult  to  condense  into  the  limits  of  a  popular  discourse  much 
that  might  be  interesting  to  the  future,  in  a  historic  point  of  view. 
Indeed,  many  of  the  facts  were  obliged  to  be  so  briefly  alluded  to  as  to 
render  them  hardly  intelligible  to  the  general  reader ;  but  an  attempt 
has  been  made  to,  in  some  measure,  remedy  this,  and  also  to  correct 
some  long  standing  historic  mistakes,  by  a  series  of  appendant  notes, 
referred  to  in  the  text  l)y  reference  letters.  Much  time  and  labor 
has  been  bestowed  in  examining  the  sources  from  which  early  wi'iters 
drew  their  reported  facts,  and  in  research  for  other  material  relative  to 
those  times  referred  to  in  this  discourse.  And  it  is  believed  that  from 
the  care  thus  bestowed  upon  the  minutice,  the  general  aspect  of  this 
brief  picture  of  Rehoboth  in  the  Past  will  be  found  as  substantially 
correct  as  so  brief  a  limit  could  well  admit  of. 

The  author  would  here  tender  his  thanks  to  all  who  may  have  in  any 
way  contributed  to  the  general  success  of  that  interesting  Festal  Gath- 
ering, in  favor  of  wliich,  the  Public,  as  reflected  from  the  Pulpit  and 
the  Press,  has  already  pronounced  its  verdict. 


O  R  A  T  I  O  X. 


Fellow  Citizens  : 

The  partiality  of  the  projectors  of  this 
pious  gathering  has  placed  me  in  a  rather  delicate 
position,  on  account  of  my  relationship  to  the  founder 
of  this  ancient  town  and  church  ;  but  I  shall  endeavor 
to  forego  all  such  considerations,  and  seek  to  present 
ungarnished  truth,  let  its  inspiring  mantle  fall  as  it 
ma}^ 

On  the  centennial  milestones  that  mark  the  great 
highway  of  civilization,  even  back  to  the  days  of  an- 
cient learning  and  artistic  splendor,  may  be  seen  the 
graphic  inscription,  "  We  are  living  in  an  extraordi- 
nary age."  This  has  been  the  spontaneous  exclama- 
tion of  observing  men  in  every  past  age ;  and  it  has 
been  relatively  true.  Nor  has  it  lost  any  of  its  truth 
in  this,  our  age ;  but  rather  returns  upon  us  in  ten- 
fold force.  We,  too,  are  living  in  a  truly  wonderful 
age.  Nature  has  commenced  revealino;  her  sublimer 
mysteries.  Science  has  commenced  in  earnest  to  open 
her  inner  temple,  and  is  rapidly  upsetting  the  mis- 
takes of  the  past,  and  is  scattering  the  seeds  of  utility 
broadcast  over  the  age  in  which  we  live.  Time  is  an 
insatiable  depredator,  and  by  silently  appearing  to 
2 


10 


take  nothing,  is  too  often  permitted  to  take  all.  But, 
in  this  age,  if  we  go  to  the  site  of  Bab3-lon  or  Nine- 
veh, and  see  nothing  externally  but  a  heap  of  dust — 
if  in  gazing  externally  at  the  prostrate  columns  and 
shattered  capitals  of  Palmyra,  Baalbec  and  Thebes,  we 
read  nothing  but  ruin — if,  in  fancy,  we  take  our  stand 
in  the  dim,  hushed  temple  of  Karnak,  and  by  the  red 
sirlare  of  torchlioht  can  read  nothiu";  but  the  dialect  of 
eternal  decay, — 3et  by  skillfully  applying  the  smooth 
and  polished  keys  of  present  Science  to  the  labyrinth- 
ian  locks  of  Nature  and  ancient  art,  the  accuracy  of 
the  present  state  of  the  comparative  anatomy  of  things 
will  cause  a  few  apparently  useless  fragments  to  reveal 
all  the  fair  proportions  of  the  ancient  structure,  and 
reproduce  it  in  all  its  dimensions.  If  Time  has  dealt 
harshly  with  the  sculptured  marble,  it  is  now  within 
the  reach  of  reproduction  ;  and  what  is  still  more  won- 
derful in  this  age,  if  the  shade  of  Time  has  stealthily 
drawn  his  decomposing  brush  over  the  speaking  can- 
vas, roljbing  the  pictured  form  of  its  grace,  and  tar- 
nished the  cheek  of  beauty,  it  is  an  achievement  of 
this  age  that  the  fair  and  manly  forms  that  once  sat 
by  the  easels  of  Titian,  Rubens  or  Raphael,  though 
defaced  by  time,  or  earlier  incompetent  restorers,  can 
now,  by  scientific  art,  be  restored  to  all  the  exact 
original  grace  and  tints  once  imparted  by  the  pencils 
of  those  great  masters.  But  among  the  many  other 
prominent  features  of  this  age,  is  that  of  its  spirit  and 
energy  in  antiquarian  research,  and  in  drawing  forth 
from  the  musty  archives  of  the  past,  detached  and  faded 
facts,  and,  through  the  comparative  anatomy  of  Truth, 
restore  something  of  the  originals,  and  place  them  in 


11 


more  durable  condition,  for  the  benefit  of  present  and 
coniincj"  o-enerations  of  men. 

In  attempting  to  present  on  this  occasion  something 
of  the  original  settlers  of  this  venerable  town,  I  shall 
not  summon  them  from  yonder  cemetery,  in  their 
skeletons  of  bones,  and  ofier  them  to  your  mental 
view  merely  in  shrouds  and  coflins,  but  slitdl  endeavor 
to  reclothe  them  with  flesh  and  sinew,  and  to  drape 
them  in  the  habiliments  of  their  once  mortal  exist- 
ence, and,  in  some  measure,  present  them  as  the3^  trod 
this  consecrated  platform  of  religious  and  social  life 
two  hundred  years  ago. 

And,  first,  I  will  endeavor  to  present  a  glance  at  the 
life  of  the  founder  of  this  town  and  its  first  pastor. 
Dr.  Cotton  Mather,  the  learned  author  of  the  Magna- 
lia,  is  one  of  the  principal  colonial  historians  who  has 
given  us  information  on  this  matter ;  but  he  has  fallen 
into  some  mistakes,  thereby  misleading  later  annal- 
ists, which  I  have  corrected  from  earlier  and  authen- 
tic sources. 

Kev.  Samuel  Newman  was  the  son  of  Richard  New- 
man, who  was  a  glover,  or  dealer  in  gloves  and  other 
leathern  articles  of  apparel,  and  who  lived  in  respecta- 
ble standing  at  Banbury,  Oxford  county,  fifteen  miles 
from  Oxford  University,  in  England.  The  records  of 
the  church  at  Banbury  show  that  this  child  was  bap- 
tized, or  christened.  May  24, 1602,  and  as  the  rules  of 
the  church  required  this  ceremony  within  two  weeks 
•from  birth,  when  circumstances  would  permit,  he  was 
probably  born  about  the  10th  or  12th  of  Ma}^,  1G02. 
The  annals  of  the  times  present  us  with  but  little 
minutiae  in  his  earlier  life,  so  that  we  can  only  form 


12 


our  estimate  of  the  l)oy  by  surrounding  circumstances 
and  the  subsequent  man.  Tlie  family  had  long  been 
noted  in  the  reahn  of  England  for  their  uniform  adhe- 
sion to  the  Protestant  religion,  and  also  for  their  piety 
and  o;eneral  moral  rectitude.  Under  these  inlluences 
the  boy  exhibited  studious  habits  and  also  contempla- 
tive propensities.  His  parents  bestowed  upon  him  a 
good  early  education,  and  then  placed  him  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford.  He  first  entered  St.  Edmund's  Hall 
for  study  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  that  department  be- 
ing a  cheaper  mode  of  living,  but  was  afterwards  reg- 
istered as  a  member  of  Trinity  College,  Oxford,  where 
he  graduated  with  its  honors  October  17, 1620,  at  the 
age  of  eighteen,  (a)  With  all  his  early  proclivities  thus 
nourished  and  cultivated,  and  his  studious  intimacy 
Avith  Rev.  Dr.  Featly,  an  eminent  theologic  Professor 
and  also  his  intimacy  with  Rev.  William  Gouge,  (who, 
for  nine  years,  was  never  once  absent  from  morning 
and  evening  praj^ers,  and  who  read  fifteen  chapters 
of  the  Bible  every  day  during  that  nine  years,)  with 
men  like  these  for  his  chosen  associates,  though  far 
superior  in  years,  it  is  not  much  of  a  wonder  that  a 
writer  of  that  age  remarked  that  "  he  early  became  a 
very  able  minister  of  the  New  Testament."  (/»)  Dr. 
Mather,  with  his  accustomed  carelessness  in  minutiae, 
states  that  the  religious  persecutions  of  the  times 
caused  him  seven  removes  from  churches  in  England, 
and  finally  his  eighth  remove  to  America,  The  last 
is  true,  but  all  else  is  a  seven-fold  mistake,  having  no* 
better  foundation  than  his  hallucinations  of  withcraft. 
This  3"oung  and  talented  ornament  to  the  cluistian 
world   temporarily  supplied  several  different  pul})its 


13 


during  the  iibseiicc  of  their  pa.sturs,  and  was  really 
settled  nowhere  till  in  1G25,  then  aged  twenty-three, 
Mdien  he  was  installed  pastor  of  Midhope  Chapel,  in 
the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire;  and  on  that  occasion 
his  congregation  presented  their  young  and  brilliant 
preacher  with  this  ministerial  cane,  now  two  hundred 
and  thirty-five  years  old,  and  a  hale  old  rosewood  stalf 
yet.  [Cane  exhibited.]  He  remained  at  that  church 
ten  years,  or  until  1G35.  In  that  year  the  degrading- 
religious  persecutions  of  Archbishop  Laud,  who  was 
afterwards  suddenly  made  a  head  shorter,  reached  the 
climax  of  bitterness  for  non-conformity  to  those  wliiui- 
sical  outward  ceremonials  which,  to  the  really  intelli- 
gent and  christian  people,  so  much  resembled  the  old 
Roman  hierarchy;  and  it  was  in  that  year,  lGo5,  and 
not  in  1636  nor  1638,  as  related  by  some  of  our  early 
annalists,  that  this  man,  with  his  young  family  and  a 
sister  Elizabeth,  came  to  America.  In  that  year  there 
was  a  large  emigration,  and  among  them  a  company 
who,  in  the  records  of  Dorchester,  are  called  the, 
second  emigration.  Among  them  was  Rev.  Richard 
Mather,  the  progenitor  of  that  race  in  America,  and 
our  Samuel  Newman,  as  passengers  together.  In  that 
year,  owng  to  a  large  emigration  froin  Dorchester  to 
Connecticut,  including  their  pastor.  Rev.  Mr.  Warham, 
this  new  company  took  the  place  of  those  leaving, 
and  purchased  their  lands  and  improvements.  Mr. 
Mather  and  the  new  comers  reorganized  the  church 
and  drew  up  a  new  covenant,  which  afterwards  served 
as  the  basis  of  nearly  all  New  England,  and  in  this 
organization  Mr.  Newman  participated.  He  resided 
at  Dorchester  four  years,  instead  of  one  or  two,  as  has 


often  l>oen  stated  ;  and  the  records  of  Dorcllester  say 
tliat  he  was  a  useful  citizen  among  them  in  organizing 
their  civil  and  rehgious  condition,  and  a  useful  man  in 
a  variety  of  ways.  It  does  not  appear  that  he  was  in 
the  ministry  while  at  Dorchester,  any  more  than  as 
a  member  of  the  chiu'ch,  and  perhaps  an  occasional 
preacher,  but  was  engaged  in  writing  his  Concordance 
to  tlie  Bible,  and  waiting  for  a  suitable  field  of  labor 
when  called  for.  He  was  a  freeman  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Colony  and  a  housekeeper  while  at  Dorchester; 
and  in  his  will,  twenty-five  years  later,  mentions  his 
old  house-servant  at  Dorchester,  and  makes  her  a 
bequest. 

In  1639  the  church  at  Weymouth  had  got  itself  into 
three  contending  factious  under  three  teachers,  who 
were  there  at  the  same  time,  viz :  Mr.  Hull,  Mr.  Jen- 
ner  and  Mr.  Lenthal.  In  this  state  of  things  the  peo- 
ple of  Weymouth  invited  Mr.  Newman  to  become  their 
sole  pastor  in  1G39.  He  consulted  his  friends  and  his 
duty,  and  concluded  to  gratify  their  wishes.  He  im- 
inediatelj'^  sold  his  lands  to  Mr.  Mather,  as  appears  by 
deeds,  and  took  charge  of  the  church  at  Weymouth, 
and  in  him  all  the  people  of  Weymouth  cordially  uni- 
ted ;  and  thus  permanently  commenced  his  ministerial 
labors  in  America.  In  Weymouth  he  gave  ample  sat- 
isfaction to  all  his  people,  and  besides  his  duties  as  a 
citizen  and  pastor,  he  was  diligent  in  carrying  forward 
his  great  work,  the  first /«//  Concordance  to  the  Bible 
ever  attempted.  He  remained  there  till  the  spring  of 
1644.  His  people,  joined  by  others  of  Hingham,  con- 
cluding that  a  settlement  at  this  place  would  afford 
them  Ijetter  lands  and  a  pleasanter  location,  united  in 


1-J 


pnvcliasiiig  of  Massasoit  a  torritoiy  ton  iiillos  squnro  ; 
and  pastor,  church  and  people,  leaving  a  small  minor- 
ity remaining,  migrated  to  this  spot  and  settled  as  a 
new  community;  and  regarding  their  pastor  as  their 
Joshua,  they  constituted  him,  by  common  consent,  thc^ 
founder  and  namer  of  this  new  town.  The  original 
Indian  name  of  this  place,  Seekonk,  was  a  imion  of 
two  Indian  words,  sccJd,  black,  and  onk,  goose,  or  large 
Jjird ; — thus  it  meant  hlacJc  (joose,  or  what  we  call  wild 
a:oose  ;  and  the  Indians  thus  named  it  from  the  unreal 
numbers  of  that  bird  Avliich  in  that  age  congregated 
in  the  neighboring  Cove,  on  the  west  side  of  this  place. 
Thus  originated  this  town,  to  which  the  pastor  gave 
the  scriptural  name  of  Rehoboth,  remarking  that  "  the 
Lord  hath  opened  a  way  for  us."  He  probably  had  in 
mind  the  twenty-sixth  chapter  of  Genesis,  verse  22d, 
which  reads  thus :  "  And  he  called  the  name  of  it 
Rehoboth ;  and  he  said,  for  now  the  Lord  hath  made 
room  for  us,  and  we  shall  be  fruitful  in  the  land." 
This  Hebrew  term  signified  a  broad  way  or  street,  a 
broad  place,  a  plateau,  and  certainly  the  topography 
of  this  place  will  justify  its  adoption  as  a  proper  name. 
Having  thus  traced  this  pious  man  from  the  })lace 
of  his  birth  to  this  his  last  abiding  place,  I  will  en- 
deavor to  group  together  the  outlines  of  his  history, 
and  that  of  his  chosen  people,  down  to  the  period  of 
his  death.  On  commencing  life  anew,  each  rendered 
in  the  amount  of  his  property,  for  purposes  of  taxa- 
tion ;  and  Mr.  Newman's  amount  was  £530.  [c)  The 
first  houses  were  log,  thatclied  buildings,  with  large 
stone  chimneys ;  and  they  built  the  town  in  a  semi- 
circle, called  ''  the  ring  of  the  town,"  open  on  the  west. 


k; 


Avitb  the  cluiroli  in  tlio  contro,  and  within  a  fow  feet 
of  thii^  ])resent  building;  and  the  general  outlines  of 
the  town  are  now  plainly  visible.  At  this  period  they 
were  not  considered  as  beloncring  to  or  connected  with 
either  the  Massachusetts  Colony  or  the  Plymouth  Col- 
ony, but  were,  in  reality,  an  independent  plantation. 
And  in  this  condition,  while  they  could  consult  their 
general  wants  .at  the  public  and  frequent  town  meet- 
ings, yet  they  felt  the  need  of  something  of  a  court  or 
tribunal,  to  whom  they  should  submit ;  and  to  meet 
tins,  the  pastor  drew  up  an  instrument  which  yet 
remains  in  the  archives  of  the  town,  and  which  still 
bears  the  autograph  signatures  of  the  thirty  heads  of 
families  as  then  existing.  It  provided  that  once  a 
year  the  whole  town  should  have  a  voice  in  choosing 
uine  discreet  men  from  among  themselves,  and  that 
the  decision  of  a  majority  of  the  nine  should  be  final 
in  ;dl  matters  of  dispute  or  disagreement.  It  was  a 
very  simple  arrangement,  but  as  it  possessed  equity 
powers,  and  was  selected  by  the  people  themselves, 
and  called  "  townsmen,"  it  answered  all  its  purposes, 
and  has  existed,  with  various  alterations  of  its  powers, 
down  to  your  present "  selectmen."  This  compact  was 
signed  July  3,  1643.  (d)  The  town  was  afterwards 
annexed  to  the  Plymouth  Colon}^,  and  so  remained 
till  the  union  of  the  two  colonies  in  1691.  The 
church  instructed  the  town,  and  the  town  provided  for 
the  church ;  and  for  more  than  a  century  following 
seemed  to  provide  for  the  church  as  a  part  of  itself 
The  first  public  meetings  were  held  under  the  shade 
of  trees  in  suitable  weather,  and  in  private  houses 
when  the  season  re({uired  it,  l)oth  religious  and  secu- 


17 


lar.  The  first  we  hear  of  a  meetlng-houw  was  in 
October,  1646,  when  a  tax  was  made  to  build  one. 
The  meeting-house  was  partially  made  and  rendered 
habitable  in  1647,  and  it  stood  where  now  is  the  wall 
of  the  cemetery,  and  its  south  side  was  where  the  tomb 
now  is.  In  1648  there  was  a  tax  ^oy  Jinishiur/  the  meet- 
ing-house. In  1659  they  enlarged  the  meeting-house 
by  putting  on  wluit  the  vote  calls  a  "  new  end,"  and 
contracted  that  it  be  shino'led  as  well  as  Goodman 
Payne's  house ;  and  from  this  period  the  house  lasted, 
with  some  repairs,  fifty-nine  years,  or  until  1718,  when 
they  built  the  second  house,  fronting  with  the  old  one, 
but  thirty  feet  east  of  it.  That  second  house  I  have 
seen ;  it  had  two  sets  of  galleries,  one  above  the  other, 
and  it  disappeared  in  1814,  four  years  after  this  pres- 
ent house  was  erected,  in  1810,  having  lasted,  with 
various  repairs,  ninety-six  years ;  and  at  last  became 
a  residence  for  sheep  and  bats,  and  finally  its  lum])er 
was  used  in  erecting  the  present  town-house  or  hall. 
But  from  this  meetino^-house  dio;ression  let  us  return 
to  their  first  years.  In  the  absence  of  bells,  they  beat 
the  drum  to  give  notice  of  the  time  for  puljlic  worship  ; 
and  seating  the  meeting  according  to  seniority  and 
other  orders  of  respectability  was  the  delicate  task  of 
a  yearlj^  committee  appointed  by  the  town.  In  some 
parts  of  New  England  it  was  the  custom  to  preach 
by  the  hour,  as  measured  by  the  hour-glass,  and  the 
preacher  must  preach  till  the  sand  had  run  out,  wheth- 
er his  ideas  had  all  run  out  or  not;  [e)  but  such  wns 
not  the  case  with  this  people, — they  had  an  able  min- 
ister, who  measured  his  discourse  by  its  importance 
and  his  ability  in  condensing  it.  Everything  Avore  a 
3 


18 


relip:ioTis  nspoot ;  l)nt  tlioy  took  no  ])aii  in  tlioi^o  snpor- 
stitious  follies  involved  in  the  early  lawsof  Conncctient 
nor  the  persecutions  at  the  headquarters  of  the  Bay 
Colony  at  Boston.  The  first  settlers  of  this  place 
•were  very  generally  men  of  good  abilities,  and  of  con- 
siderable more  than  ordinary  education  for  those  times. 
But  they  were  an  isolated  plantation  ;  and  it  provokes 
a  smile  to  read  on  their  town  records  of  1649  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  committee  of  two  of  their  ablest  men, 
John  Brown  and  Stephen  Payne,  with  power  to  em- 
ploy a  surveyor;  and  for  what?  why  to  accomplish 
the  difficult  task  of  finding  the  way  to  Dedham !  a 
journey  now  traveled  in  about  forty  minutes.  This 
vote  alone  is  a  whole  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 
dilference  between  their  times  and  ours.  They  were 
on  good  terms  with  their  Indian  friends,  and  having 
purchased  and  paid  for  their  lands,  the  Indians  fully 
acknowledged  their  peaceable  possession  down  to  the 
time  of  Philip's  war.  (/)  There  was  a  very  faithful 
Indian,  whose  original  name  ought  to  have  been  jDre- 
served,  but  whom  the  settlers  called  Sam,  whether 
after  their  pastor  or  otherwise  I  know  not,  but  he 
was  the  general  shepherd  for  the  town  in  watching 
their  flocks  and  herds  at  the  great  "  Ox  Pasture,"  and 
driving;  the  cows  home  at  nif)rht  and  distributino;  them 
about  in  their  appropriate  yards ;  and  such  was  the 
esteem  in  which  he  was  held,  that  on  the  books  of  the 
town  there  is  a  vote  admitting  him  to  all  the  privi- 
leges of  citizenship.  This  is  the  first  instance,  and  I 
think  the  only  instance,  in  all  our  colonial  history, 
where  a  native  born  American  has  been  naturalized 
on  his  own  soil  by  a  community  of  foreigners;  but 


19 


the  name  of"  U}wk  Sam"  yet  remains  a  very  popular 
cognomen  for  our  common  country. 

Their  town  meetings  were  held  in  their  meeting- 
house, and  for  many  years  "Father  Bowen,"  as  the 
records  call  Mr.  Richard  Bowen,  was  a  sort  of  stereo- 
typed moderator;  and  he  also  served  as  clerk.  And 
here  a  word  on  the  term  il/r.  It  was  very  rarely 
applied,  and  only  to  clergymen  and  citizens  of  much 
more  than  ordinary  distinction,  and  more  rarely  than 
we  now  use  the  title  of  Honorable.  The  common  title, 
as  we  now  use  Mister,  was  Goodman,  and  for  3frs.  they 
used  the  term  Goodwife  or  Goody; — thus  Goodman 
and  Goody  Paine  instead  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Paine.  I 
mention  this  little  fact  because  it  will  throw  light  on 
old  books  when  being  read  by  young  persons ;  and 
this  was  not  a  peculiar  trait  in  this  people,  but  com- 
mon to  that  age  in  all  the  colonies.  Their  log  houses, 
with  clay-thatched  roofs,  resembled  a  thing  two  stories 
in  front  and  no  story  in  the  rear,  the  back  eaves  reach- 
ing nearly  to  the  ground  and  tow^ards  the  north  to  ward 
off  storms,  and  the  front  flicing  the  south  to  enjoy  the 
sun.  The  fire-place  and  oven  of  stone,  and  chimney- 
flue  of  board  lined  with  clay,  were  of  large  dimensions, 
so  that  there  were  little  sittino;-rooms  on  each  side  of 
the  huge  fire,  with  oak  benches  for  sofas,  from  which 
they  could  look  out  of  the  chimney  and  see  the  same 
stars,  planets  and  moon  which  had  shone  on  them  in 
their  native  Europe,  with  inspiring  visions  of  the  homes 
of  their  forefathers.  Fire-wood  was  plentiful,  and  their 
food,  clothing,  furniture  and  general  habits  were  so 
plain  and  substantial  that  they  knew  not  the  want  of 
valerian  root,  homoeopathic  globules,  or  artificial  bloom 


20 


for  their  checks.  In  these  independent  castles  tliere 
Avere  rehgioiis  purity,  much  innocent  meminent  and 
general  neighborhood  sociality;  and  barley  beer,  made 
by  the  goody  or  mother  of  the  family,  was  the  common 
beverage  when  they  exceeded  water.  In  this  plain, 
unsophisticated  manner,  with  pitch-pine  knots  whit- 
tled into  candles,  they  spent  their  winter  evenings  in 
teaching  children  to  read,  write  and  cipher,  and  in 
cheerful  social  parties,  frequently  attended  by  their 
smiling  pastor,  who,  with  all  his  puritan  gravity,  w^as 
often  caught  at  play  with  the  assembled  children  of  the 
wdiole  neighborhood  as  if  they  had  been  his  own.  (//) 
The  young  men  were  ambitious  m  the  art  of  tilling 
the  soil,  and  of  being  found  at  church  on  the  Sabbath  ; 
and  the  girls,  though  constant  at  church,  w^ere  hardly 
considered  marriageable  till,  in  addition  to  their  daily 
practice  in  the  art  of  housekeeping,  they  could  show 
a  pillow-case  full  of  stockings  of  their  own  knitting, 
and  woollen,  linen  and  tow  dresses  enough,  spun  wdtli 
their  own  hands,  to  last  them  till  their  first  born  daugh- 
ter w^ould  be  old  enough  to  begin  to  pull  flax.  Every- 
body learned  a  trade,  and  that  trade  was,  the  art  or 
mystery  of  being  diligent  in  some  real  utility.  How 
different  wxre  those  girls  from  ours !  I  am  not  here 
to  say  which  are  the  best ;  but  if  the  Great  Author  of 
the  celebrated  sermon  on  the  Mount  w^ere  here,  he 
might  see  fit  to  repeat  his  own  words  in  reference  to 
many  of  the  young  ladies  of  this  age :  "  They  toil 
not,  neither  do  they  spin,  yet  Solomon  in  all  his  glory 
was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these."  Their  mode  of 
travel  was  generally  on  foot.  There  were  but  few 
horses  for  horseback,  and  no  carriages  other  than  the 


21 


ox  carts  for  farming;  and  wlicn  new  comers  began  lo 
settle  at  a  distance  from  the  ''ring  of  the  town,"  they 
often  took  their  families  to  meeting  with  ox  teams. 
But  with  all  this  simplicity  of  social  condition,  they 
were  a  pious,  intelligent,  law-abiding  and  hospitable 
people,  exhibiting  much  of  genuine  goodness,  and  left 
an  example  that  entitles  the  soil  that  here  they  once 
trod  to  be  regarded  as  consecrated  ground, — conse- 
crated to  religion,  to  sound  morality  and  to  good  citi- 
zenship ;  and,  as  such,  their  memory  is  entitled  to  our 
gratitude  and  respect. 

Such  was  the  general  aspect  of  this  community  down 
to  1GG3,  the  period  of  the  death  of  their  ^^astor,  and 
such  were  the  people  with  whom  he  held  daih'  inter- 
course, and  to  whom  he  weekly,  and  often  semi-weekly, 
imparted  his  ministrations.  I  will  now  attempt  a  brief 
summary  of  his  life  and  character ;  and  in  doing  this 
shall  offer  no  high-wrought  eulogy,  but  simply  present 
him  in  the  position  to  which  he  is  fairly  entitled,  and 
the  position  which  I  think  he  is  destined  to  occuj^y 
in  coming  ages. 

His  Concordance.  There  had  been  partial  Concord- 
ances, or  rather  indexes  to  certain  parts  of  the  Bible, 
attempted  by  Cardinal  Charo,  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tur}-,  and  by  several  others  in  Hebrew,  Greek  and 
Latin,  but  the  first  fuil  Concordance  in  English,  that  on 
which  Cruden's  and  all  later  ones  are  based,  was  writ- 
ten or  compiled  by  Samuel  Newman.  The  first  edition 
was  printed  at  London  in  1643,  the  last  year  of  his 
ministry  at  Weymouth.  The  second  edition  was  pre- 
pared in  this  town  and  printed  at  London  in  lG-50,  and 


22 


the  third  and  last  edition,  still  more  complete,  was 
prepared  liere  and  printed  at  London  in  1G58,  two 
hundred  and  two  years  ago  this  year;  and  here  is  the 
identical  copy  he  reserved  for  hi.s  own  use.  It  has 
been  pronounced  by  Biljlical  scholars  a  nionument  of 
learning,  genius,  industry  and  skill.  To  the  christian 
world,  as  its  sacred  literature  then  was,  the  adniirable 
arrangement  and  perfect  execution  of  this  task  was  a 
glittering  casket  of  diamonds,  cut  from  the  Scriptures, 
and  set,  for  convenience,  in  pictures  of  gold.  Highly 
and  justly  as  this  perfect  guide  to  every  significant 
word  in  the  whole  Bible,  Apocrypha  and  all,  was  prized 
in  Europe  and  America,  this  infant  town,  though  then 
a  wilderness,  could  claim  the  honor  of  its  production. 
But, 

"Each  pleasure  hath  its  poison,  too, 
And  every  sweet  a  snare." 

His  publishers  at  London  failed  and  defrauded  him  of 
all  pecuniary  re^vard  for  his  labors;  and  about  the 
time  of  his  death,  another  edition  being  called  for  by 
the  sales  it  met  with,  it  was  re-published  at  Cambridge 
University,  England,  under  the  high-sounding  title  of 
the  "  Cambridge  Concordance,"  faintly  crediting  its 
authorship  to  the  initial  letters  "  S.  N.,"  in  small  type, 
without  stating  whether  of  Old  or  New  England,  or 
the  moon.  Perhaps  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  in 
the  whole  history  of  authorship  an  instance  of  more 
flagrant  wrong  committed  upon  a  toiling  scholar,  aljout 
leaving  the  Avorld,  and  unable  to  speak  for  himself  by 
a  distance  of  three  thousand  miles.  But  it  was  said  by 
the  Psalmist  of  old,  "  The  righteous  shall  be  in  ever- 
lasting remembrance,"  a  reward  of  far  more  value  than 


23 


booksellers'  remittanees;  and  T  am  proud  of  an  op- 
portunity, though  at  the  distance  of  two  centuries,  to 
vindicate  his  memory  on  this  the  original  site  of  his 
achievements,  though  I  could  wish  that  the  task  had 
fiiUen  to  abler  hands.  Thus  much  of  this  sacred  monu- 
ment of  his  literary  labors. 

His  ixtellectu.\l  and  religious  character,  and  itis 
DEATH.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  thirteen  years  after 
his  decease,  his  library  and  papers,  bequeathed  in  his 
will  to  his  son  Noah,  and  successor  in  the  ministry, 
fared  hard  at  the  burnino;  of  the  "  rins:  of  the  town  " 
on  the  28th  of  March,  1676,  by  the  Indians  in  Philip's 
war.  Only  a  fragment  of  his  diary  escaped  that  con- 
flagration, but  it  is  an  important  one.  It  was  the 
private  platform  of  his  life,  and  the  one  on  which 
cotemporary  writers  say  he  implicitly  stood  during 
his  whole  residence  in  America.  This  brief  but  im- 
portant document  is  as  follow^s : 

"  Notes  or  marls  of  gi-ace  I  find  in  myself;  not  wherein  I  desire  to 
glory,  but  to  take  ground  of  assurance,  and  after  our  apostle's  rules, 
to  make  my  election  sure,  though  I  find  them  but  in  weak  measure  : 

1.  I  love  God,  and  desire  to  love  God,  principally  ybr  himself. 

2.  I  desire  to  requite  evil  with  good. 

3.  A  looking  up  to  God,  to  see  him  and  his  hand  in  all  things  that 
befall  me. 

4.  A  greater  fear  of  displeasing  God,  than  all  the  world. 

5.  A  love  of  such  christians  as  I  never  saw,  or  received  good  from. 

6.  A  ^rri'e/"  when  I  see  God^s  commands  broken  l»y  any  person. 

7.  A  mourning  for  not  finding  the  assurance  of  God's  love,  and  the 
sense  of  his  favour,  in  that  comfortable  manner,  at  one  time  as  at  another ; 
and  not  being  able  to  serve  God  as  I  should. 

8.  A  willingness  to  give  God  the  glory  of  any  ability  to  do  good. 

9.  A  joy  when  I  am  in  christian  company,  in  Godly  conference. 


24 


10.  A  'iriff.  wlicn  T  poroeivo  it  (/ors  ill  irith  christians,  and  tlie 
contrary. 

11.  A  constant  performance  of  secret  duties,  between  Goil  and  my- 
self, iiKirnino;  and  evening. 

12.  A  bewailing  of  such  sins  which  none  in  the  world  can  accuse 
me  of. 

13.  A  choosing  oi  suffering  to  avoid  sin." 

As  liis  implicit  practice  of,  and  {idlicrence  to,  these 
thirteen  goklen  rules,  oflsprings  of  their  great  proto- 
type in  the  New  Testament,  is  corroborated  by  ample 
cotemporary  testimony,  no  other  evidence  need  be 
adduced  to  exhibit  his  as  a  well  balanced,  pure  and 
lofty  christian  character.  The  more  they  are  scru- 
tinized from  a  christian  stand-point,  the  purer  and 
brighter  they  will  shine.  And,  to  a  suggestive  mind, 
this  number  of  thirteen  might  appear  as  rather  ominous, 
for  they  woidd  have  strengthened  the  moral  force  of 
that  immortal  document  we  have  heard  read  to-day 
as  the  platform  of  the  thirteen  new-born  States,  crea- 
ting a  vast  Republic,  w^hich  can  permanently  endure 
only  on  a  basis  of  political  righteousness. 

There  are  two  events  in  his  life  which  we  could 
wish  had  never  occurred,  because  they  were  misrepre- 
sented in  the  history  of  those  times ;  but  neither  of 
them  did  his  character  any  permanent  harm,  as  they 
received  their  false  coloring  from  the  careless  use  of 
words  by  earlier  and  partizan  historians.  I  would  not 
shroud  his  faults  in  the  mantle  of  his  virtues,  ample  as 
that  would  be  to  cover  them,  for  that  would  not  be 
honest.  That  he  participated  in  the  limited  vision  that 
belongs  to  our  mortal  existence  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
The  sun  itself  has  spots,  and  imperfection  is  clearly 


25 


admitted  in  the  twelfth  item  of  his  personal  platlbrm. 
The  two  events  are  these  :  Eight  persons,  with  Oba- 
diah  Holmes  as  their  leader,  adopting  the  Baptist  sen- 
timents, voluntarily  withdrew  from  this  church  and 
held  meetings  of  their  own.  The  censure  imputed 
to  the  pastor  by  the  polemical  wTiters  of  those  times 
consisted  in  what  they  tortured  into  harshness  in 
excommunicating  these  persons  from  his  church,  when 
all  he  did  in  the  matter  was  to  formally  discontinue 
their  names  as  members  of  his  church,  after  they  had 
voluntarily  withdrawn.  The  word  excommunicate  was 
not  the  right  term ;  it  implied  an  unkindness  that  he 
never  manifested.  It  is  true  that  Obadiah  Holmes 
was  unmercifully  and  wrongfully  whipped  for  his  re- 
ligious opinions,  but  it  was  done  for  the  exercise  of 
those  opinions  in  another  place,  and  by  the  rigid,  per- 
secuting authorities  at  Boston,  and  in  a  colony  that 
had  no  control  over  Rehoboth.  In  relis^ious  tolera- 
tion,  the  governments  of  the  Massachusetts  and  Ply- 
mouth Colonies  w^ere  two  very  different  bodies,  and 
so  were  the  people  that  sustained  them ;  and  this  was 
one  of  the  freest  towns  in  this  colony.  But  toleration, 
in  those  days,  was  as  far  as  any  of  them  could  see, 
and  to  be  tolerant  was  to  be  mao-nanimous.  But  tol- 
eration  implies  the  reserved  right  to  withhold  that 
which  is  tolerated.  The  great  idea  that  perfect  relig- 
ious freedom,  in  all  matters  of  conscience,  was  an  in- 
herent, inalienaljle  right  in  man,  was  reserved  for  an 
outcast  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  and  not  the  Ply- 
mouth. The  sublime  truth  of  "soul  liberty"  Avas  a 
celestial  spark  that  ignited  the  heart  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams alone,  but  was  destined  by  Omniscience  to  shed 
4 


26 


its  raditmce  over  our  entire  world.  The  iiitoleruiit 
severity  -wrongfully  attributed  to  Relioboth,  had  no 
real  existence.  And  I  think  that  if  our  aged  friend, 
Avho,  thank  God,  still  lives,  and  is  Avith  us  here  to-day, 
the  venerable  and  learned  historian  of  the  great  and 
respectable  Baptist  denomination  in  this  and  other 
countries,  [Rev.  Dr.  Benedict,]  had  written  his  lumi- 
nous history  under  the  developments  of  the  present 
day,  instead  of  a  half  century  ago,  I  think  that  he, 
"vvith  all  his  acknowledged  ability  and  fairness  of  pur- 
pose, would  have  more  amply  shielded  the  memory 
of  this  generous  and  high-minded  christian  scholar. 

The  other  regretted  event  is  brief.  Several  citi- 
zens, Avhose  zeal  probably  swerved  their  judgment, 
reported  to  the  pastor  that  Mr.  Holmes  had  made  a 
false  statement  on  some  matter  at  court ;  and,  in  a 
public  discourse  on  the  importance  of  moral  recti- 
tude, the  pastor  alluded  to  this  report,  not  then  suffi- 
ciently doubting  its  truth.  Mr.  Holmes  brought  an 
action  for  damages  of  £100.  The  pastor  appeared  at 
court,  fully  admitted  the  allusion  he  had  made,  and 
presented  the  testimony  of  those  who  thus  informed 
him,  they  further  testifying  that  they  were  mistaken 
and  not  Avillful  in  the  charge.  The  court,  seeing  no 
evidence  of  intentional  wrong  on  the  part  of  the  ac- 
cused or  his  informers,  dismissed  the  idea  of  any  dam- 
age, and  ordered  that  the  pastor  should  pay  only  the 
few  shillings  of  cost.  The  complainant,  Mr.  Holmes, 
expressed  himself  perfectly  satisfied  that  the  pastor 
had  intended  him  no  wrongful  injury,  and  preferred 
to  pa}'^  the  cost  himself;  and,  in  his  next  puljlic  dis- 
course, the  pastor  took  occasion  to  set  the  Avhole  mat- 


27 


ter  right.  This  case  still  stands  thus  on  the  Pljmionth 
records;  vet  there  have  not  been  ■wantinsj:  relio;i()Us 
partizans  who  have  stated  that  the  pastor  of  this  churcli 
was  prosecuted  for  defamation,  damages  £100,  without 
giving  its  honorable  termination.  And  this  complain- 
ant was  the  same  Obadiah  Holmes  who  had  been  for- 
merly dismissed  from  this  church  at  his  own  request, 
but  not  '■'■  excommunicated ;'  and  his  manly  feelings  ex- 
hibited in  this  case  show  how  little  he  supposed  the 
meek  pastor  of  this  ancient  church  had  to  do  with  his 
being  whipped  at  Boston  for  his  religious  opinions  by 
those  ministerial  tisrers  who  were  so  "  voracious  to  do 
good." 

Hospitality  and  generosity  were  marked  features 
in  his  character.     "We  read  in  Goldsmith  of  a  parson 

"  Passing  rich  with  forty  pounds  a  year." 

Our  pastor  had  fifty  pounds  a  year,  but  as  he  was  the 
largest  tax-payer  in  the  town,  excepting  two,  his  peo- 
ple gave  themselves  but  little  trouble  about  paying 
him,  deeming  their  wants  for  improvements  to  be 
greater  than  his,  and  with  which  he  found  but  little 
fault.  He  loved  his  church  as  if  it  had  been  his  fam- 
ily, and  taught  his  family  as  if  it  had  been  his  church  ; 
and  his  church  was  pretty  nearly  the  town.  Once, 
on  a  journey  from  Boston  to  Rehoboth  on  horseback, 
[after  that  committee,  with  their  civil  engineer,  had 
found  the  way  to  Dedham,]  our  pastor  accidentally 
heard  of  a  set  lecture  to  be  delivered  by  Rev.  Richard 
Mather,  at  Dorchester,  for  the  particular  benefit  of 
certain  noted  irreligious  men.  He  resolved  to  hear 
it,  and,  turning  his  horse,  rode  to  Dorchester,  arriving 


28 


there  just  as  Mr.  Mather  was  openinfj:  his  meetini]^  with 
j)raycr.  Mr.  Mather  pressed  him  into  his  own  place 
as  preacher  for  the  occasion,  thus  unexpectedly.  Our 
pastor  delivered  one  of  his  ofl-hand  "  chridiim philij)pics^' 
and  the  result  was  that,  in  after  days,  several  eminent 
christian  citizens  of  Dorchester  dated  their  conversion 
from  that  meeting. 

A^ery  few  of  his  discourses  were  ever  committed  to 
writing.  He  is  described  by  his  almost  forgotten  co- 
temporaries  as  a  lively,  energetic  and  highly  eloquent 
extemporaneous  speaker,  whose  perspicuous  sermons, 
like  the  orations  of  Homer's  Nestor, 

"  Whose  lip  dropped  language  sweet," 

and  which  fell  like  the  dews  of  Hermon  on  his  cap- 
tive congregations ;  and  if  stenography  or  phonogra- 
phy had  been  as  common  then  as  now,  this  old  town 
might  have  furnished  one  of  the  richest  caskets  of 
jewels  in  our  country's  theologic  literature. 

In  a  sort  of  three-fold  eulogy  jDronounced  by  an 
eminent  clergyman  of  those  times,  the  year  1G63  is 
termed  a  memorable  year,  inasmuch  as  in  that  year 
Norton  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  Stone  of  the 
Connecticut  Colony,  and  Newman  of  the  Plymouth 
Colony, — the  three  divines  from  whom  their  respec- 
tive colonies  wxre  then  drawing  their  largest  share  of 
christian  light  and  influence, — all  three  expired  within 
a  few  days  of  each  other ;  a  fact  to  which  President 
Stiles  of  Yale  College,  a  century  later,  adds  his  cor- 
roborative testimony.  This  remark  alone,  among  the 
distinguished  men  of  that  age,  implied  no  small  dis- 
tinction. 


29 


But  altlioiigli  lie  1ms  lived  in  the  lloatin*!;  paragraphs 
of  biographical  dictionaries,  and  in  the  detached  and 
fading  scraps  of  a  too  much  neglected  department  of 
by-gone  literature,  and  in  his  Concordant  folio  of  Bibli- 
cal jewels  of  utility  and  energy,  yet  his  grave,  in  yon- 
der cemetery,  remains  unmarked  by  a  fragment  that 
tells  his  name ;  and  his  memory  is  almost  in  the  con- 
dition of  another  of  more  distant  times,  of  whom  it 
was  said :  "  He  was  an  ornament  to  the  age  in  which 
lie  lived,  but,  in  the  multiplied  troubles  of  the  age,  he 
had  no  historian,  and  was  forgot." 

I  have  but  little  faith  in  wdiat  is  now  passing  over 
this  age  under  the  name  of  "  Spiritualism,"  but  I  know 
of  nothing  in  revelation,  or  in  the  laws  of  Nature  as 
thus  far  developed  in  the  fields  of  phj^sical  or  intellec- 
tual philosophy,  that  positively  precludes  the  idea  that 
the  disembodied  existences  of  just  men  made  perfect 
take  cognizance  and  interest  in  the  more  refined  por- 
tions of  the  mode  of  existence  in  which  they  once  had 
so  great  an  interest.  In  the  absence  of  all  positive 
23roof,  analogy  would  seem  to  favor  the  position  that 
they  do.  The  apostrophy  in  rhetoric  is  based  on  this 
probability.  If,  then,  your  departed  pastor  of  this 
ancient  church,  with  his  beloved  Deacons  Cooper  and 
Carpenter,  and  Goodman  Paine,  and  Wheaton,  and 
Bowen,  and  Read,  and  all  that  pious  band  of  warm- 
hearted christians  who,  two  centuries  ago,  trod  in 
cheerful  meekness  this  consecrated  soil, — if  they  are 
now  witnessing  with  interest  this  pious  gathering  of 
their  descendants  to  commemorate  them,  let  us  listen 
a  moment,  with  the  ear  of  imagination,  and  catch 
some  faint  resemblance  of  their  thoughts  to  us,  as 


30 


they  fire  l)rontliod  on  seraphs'  wing-s  nnd  wnftod  from 
their  celestial  portals, 

"  Descendants  and  successors,  now  gathered  on  the 
spot  of  our  once  mortal  existence !  With  a  vision 
incomprehensible  to  you,  we  turn  a  moment  from 
our  higher  employments,  and  with  sympathetic  in- 
terest in  your  present  existence,  we  greet  you  in  the 
dialect  of  earth.  When  we  once  breathed  the  life 
that  you  now  breathe,  we,  hke  you,  were  mortal  and 
imperfect,  and  stood  upon  a  projjationary  foundation. 
We  only  acted  in  earnest  the  best  we  then  knew,  and 
in  the  lidit  of  that  Revelation  which  was  then  our 
guide,  and  should  now  be  yours.  In  our  weakness 
we  were  sustained  through  our  faith  in  promised 
grace,  and  clothed  in  the  mantle  of  the  great  atone- 
ment. Thus  equipped  in  the  armor  of  Christ,  who  is 
now  our  associate,  w^e  were  admitted  to  these  realms 
where  just  men  are  made  perfect,  and  wdiere  they 
reap  the  legitimate  awards  that  flow,  as  a  natural 
result,  from  their  innate  purity,  thus  made  perfect 
throuo-h  Divine  influence.  In  the  liirht  of  these,  our 
mortal  trials  and  immortal  triumphs,  we  say  to  you, 
live  on  in  the  full  discharge  of  your  duty ; — to  the 
best  of  your  ability  fulfil  every  Divine  command,  and 
cling  to  the  atonement,  in  all  its  essential  conditions, 
as  your  ark  of  safety.  Thus  answer  the  greatest  ob- 
ject of  your  mortal  existence,  and,  in  due  time,  come 
to  us.  Then  will  we  joyfully  introduce  you  to  scenes 
which  mortal  e^-e  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard — a 
blissful  beatitude,  unknown  and  unexpressed  in  the 
dialect  of  man;  and,  with  yon,  enjoy  such  an  exist- 
ence, in  unfading  life,  through  endless  duration.     Tu- 


31 


habitants  of  our  once  earthly  abode  !  We  appreciate 
the  objects  of  }our  innocent,  fraternal  gathering,  the 
first  of  its  kind  since  we  were  summoned  away ;  and, 
with  thoughts  like  these,  we  beckon  you  to  a  better 
world,  at  the  appointed  time;  and  luitil  you  thus 
meet  us — adieu !" 

Keturning  from  this  digressive  apostrophy,  we  \\ill 
close  the  ecclesiastic  portion  of  our  review  by  de- 
scribing the  singular  death  of  the  first  pastor  of  this 
church,  and  then  turn  our  attention  to  civic  thint»:s. 

His  death  was  difierent  from  that  of  the  ordinary 
lot  of  men,  but  I  do  not  regard  it  in  that  miraculous 
light  in  which  it  was  then  viewed,  wonderful  and  ex- 
traordinary as  it  truly  was.  From  the  nature  of  his 
Biblical  studies  in  compiling  his  Concordance,  he  had 
every  part  of  the  Divine  revelations  under  constant 
rumination,  and  this,  to  him,  was  the  means  of  arriv- 
ing at  an  extraordinary  measure  of  that  sanctity  which 
these  great  truths,  rightly  improved,  would  naturally 
inspire.  Thus,  as  he  drew  towards  the  close  of  his 
life,  he  seemed  to  advance  more  and  more  towards 
the  beginnings  of  his  final  triumph  over  his  portion 
of  our  fallen  nature ;  and  a  foresight  of  its  joys  very 
observably,  but  calmly,  irradiated  his  whole  beino-. 

On  Sunday,  June  28,  I6G0,  0.  S.,  one  hundred  and 
ninety-seven  years  ago  this  year,  he  delivered  his  last 
sermon,  from  Job  xiv.,  14  :  "  All  the  days  of  my  appoint- 
ed time  will  I  wait,  until  my  change  come."  In  that 
discourse  he  presented  a  brilliant  synopsis  of  his  whole 
christian  teachings  since  he  had  been  their  shepherd, 
informing  his  sorrow-smitten  congregation  that  his 
mission  upon  earth  was  closed,  and  imparted  his  final 


32 


and  tearful  l)Gne(lictions,  thoug-li  then  in  perfect  liealtli 
and  but  sixty-one  years  of  age.  He  was  seen  no  more 
mingling  in  the  affairs  of  men,  and  spent  the  follow- 
ing seven  days  at  his  house,  in  the  midst  of  his  family 
altar,  where  his  physical  nature  gradually  grew  weak 
without  pain  and  without  any  visible  cause ;  and  as 
his  mortal  structure  receded,  his  spiritual  being  visi- 
bly increased  in  heavenly  irradiation.  On  the  fol- 
lowing Sunday,  July  5,  the  church  drum  was  silent, 
and  ceased  to  call  the  accustomed  congregation,  and 
men  met  each  other  that  morning  in  silent  salutation 
and  with  downcast  and  foreboding  countenances.  A 
few  select  members  of  the  church  spent  some  time  in 
an  interview  with  their  pastor,  at  his  house,  in  the 
afternoon,  of  the  minutioo  of  which  there  is  no  record, 
other  than  at  the  termination  of  it,  he  asked  Deacon 
Cooper  to  close  the  />f<!r/e??^  with  prayer ;  immediately 
after  wdiich,  he  turned  his  face  from  the  gaze  of  mor- 
tals towards  the  wall  of  the  room,  and  calmly  spoke 
these  words :  "  And  now,  ye  angels  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  come,  do  your  office !"  and  gently  falling  back 
upon  his  couch,  breathed  no  more. 

Such  was  the  manner  of  his  death,  as  attested  by 
Rev.  Drs.  Mather,  Elliot  and  others ;  and  accounts  of 
it  were  drawn  up  at  the  time  by  several  clergymen 
and  others,  and  sent  to  their  friends  in  England ;  but 
they  gave  to  it  a  miraculous  shade  to  which  these  sin- 
gular facts  were  not  entitled.  The  laws  of  physical 
and  intellectual  life  were  less  understood  then  than 
now ;  and  there  was  no  miracle  about  it.  It  was  sim- 
ply a  r<?5i«/(^ ;  not  a  general,  but  an  occasional  result, 
flowing  from  a  deeply  pious  and  energetic  intellectual 


33 


christian  life ;  and  was  but  another  of  tlie  very  few, 
but  well  authenticated,  instances  o'i  jn-emoniUon,  or  that 
premonitory  presentiment  whereby,  for  some  Divine 
Providential  reason,  unknown  to  us,  but  which  we  have 
no  right  to  question, — a  well  developed  instance  among 
the  few  who  hn-ve  been  permitted  to  foresee  the  time 
and  circumstances  of  their  own  exchange  of  worlds. 
His  departure  was  long  and  deeply  lamented  by  his 
bereaved  flock,  and  throughout  New  England.  In  his 
toil  on  his  Concordance  and  Biblical  studies  he  was 
compared  with  Neander,  a  Rector  of  a  German  Uni- 
versity, who,  in  the  preceding  century,  had  spent 
many  years  of  vast  labor  in  making  notes  and  com- 
mentaries on  the  Greek  classics  of  antiquity ;  and,  in 
view  of  all  these  facts,  an  eminent  scholar  of  another 
colony  wrote  the  following  brief  but  comprehensive 
Latin  epitaph  to  his  memory,  which,  if  future  piety 
and  justice  should  ever  set  up  a  stone  to  his  yonder 
lonely  grave,  might,  with  propriety,  be  a  part  of  its 
inscription : 

"Jlortnns  est  Nennder  Xov-Anglu?, 
Qui  ante  mortem  dedicit  mori, 
Et  obiit  ea  morte  quse  potest  esse,  Ars  bene  morieiidi." 

Which  permit  me  to  offer  in  an  English  dress : 

Thus  died  the  Neander  of  New-Enghuid, 
Who  in  his  life  had  learned  how  to  die, 
And  whose  death  may  be  called  the  Art  of  d\-ii)g  well.  (^) 

For  the  five  succeeding  years  there  was  no  settled 
minister  of  this  church ;  but  Rev.  Mr.  Symes,  Re\'. 
John  Miles  and  Rev.  Mr.  Burkley  were  severally  em- 
ployed to  supply  the  desk  until  March,  1668,  when 
Noah  Newman,  youngest  son  of  the  former  pastor, 


34 


liaving  then  completed  hi.'^  preparatory  .studies,  was 
ordained  as  the  successor  to  liis  father;  and  after  ten 
years  of  acceptable  and  appreciated  service,  died  in 
1G78,  and  his  grave  is  yonder,  by  the  side  of  his  father's. 
I  have  identified  the  location  of  each,  but 

" No  stone  now  tells 


Their  name,  their  wortli,  their  glory." 

The  third  pastor  was  Eev.  Samuel  Angier;  from 
1679  till  his  health  failed  in  1G92. 

Tho  fourth  was  Rev.  Thomas  Greenwood  ;  settled  in 
October,  1693.  [The  record  looks  like  91,  but  it  is  a 
faded  3.] 

The  f/th  was  Rev.  John  Greenwood,  son  of  the  for- 
mer, and  ordained  1721.  These  two  Greenwoods  were 
most  worthy  and  pious  men,  and  their  memory  should 
long  be  kept  green  as  the  woods  of  perennial  summer. 

The  shih  was  Rev.  John  Carnes,  a  graduate  of  Har- 
vard, and  installed  April  18,  1759.  He  resigned  his 
post  in  1764,  and  from  1776  to  the  close  of  the  Revo- 
lution was  a  chaplain  in  the  American  army, — nine 
years  representative  in  the  Legislature,  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Massachusetts  Convention  that  adopted  the 
National  Constitution.  He  died  in  1802,  aged  78,  a 
patriotic  and  pious  citizen  of  unblemished  reputation. 

The  seventh  was  Rev.  Ephraim  Hyde,  a  graduate  of 
Yale  College,  ordained  May  14, 1766,  preached  seven- 
teen years,  and  died  in  1783,  aged  45.  He  was  much 
beloved  by  his  people,  and  his  grave  is  in  yonder 
cemetery. 

The  ei(//dh  was  Rev.  John  Ellis,  a  graduate  of  Har- 
vard College  in  1750.     He  was  a  chaplain  in  the  army 


0-) 


throiigliout  the  entire  Revolution,  and  installed  over 
this  church  March  30,  1785,  dismissed,  at  his  own  re- 
quest, in  1796,  from  age  and  infirmities,  and  died  at 
Norwich,  Connecticut,  1806,  aged  78.  During  the  min- 
istry of  Mr.  Ellis,  the  neighboring  and  highly  respec- 
table and  flourishing  Baptist  Church  on  the  south  end 
of  this  Common  was  organized,  in  1794.  That  church 
had  its  origin  in  a  mistaken  view  of  the  ownership  of 
certain  legacies  bequeathed  to  this  society  at  an  earlier 
period.  They  believed,  or  appeared  to  believe,  that  a 
donation  made  and  accepted  for  a  specific  purpose,  could 
be  changed  for  another  purpose  at  the  will  of  a  majority 
of  its  recipients ;  and  they  being  then  in  a  majority, 
barred  the  doors  of  this  church  until  the  Supreme  Ju- 
diciary, after  a  patient  and  most  thorough  investigation, 
unbarred  them  and  restored  order.  But  no  crimination 
nor  recrimination  need  now  be  uttered,  for  this  state 
of  things  soon  died  away,  and  the  two  churches,  though 
different  in  what  I  regard  as  non-essential  human 
creeds,  have  long  walked  hand  in  hand  in  the  spirit 
of  unity ;  and  dow^n  to  this  day  are  exhibiting  inter- 
changes and  religious  courtesies  but  rarely  met  with, 
and  are  setting  an  example  of  genuine  liberality  wor- 
thy of  all  christian  commendation ;  and  they  approach 
nearer  than  any  instance  within  my  knowledge  to  that 
immortal  line  in  the  writings  of  an  English  bard,  a  sen- 
timent wdiich  will  one  day  pervade  the  whole  world  : 

"  Be  all  distinctions,  in  the  cla-istian,  lost." 

The  ninth  pastor  of  this  church  was  Rev.  John  Hill ; 
installed  September  22,  1802,  and  lost  his  life  by  the 
kick  of  a  horse  in  1810.     I  was  present  at  his  funeral. 


:;g 


llo  was  nil  erudite  linguist  in  Hebrew.  iJi'eek  iind 
Latin,  and  well  versed  iu  the  various  departments  of 
English  literatui'e.  In  addition  to  his  very  accepta- 
ble ministerial  duties,  he  kept  a  school  for  the  above 
named  studies ;  and  was  beloved  by  his  church  and 
the  youth  under  his  charge.  His  wife  was  Roby 
Bowen ;  born  at  Coventry,  Rhode  Island,  November 
29,  1766,  a  lineal  descendant,  in  the  fifth  generation, 
from  "  Father  Richard  Bowen,"  the  town  clerk  and 
standing  regulator  of  town  meetings  in  this  place  two 
liundred  years  ago ;  and  she  still  survives  in  yonder 
house  of  her  departed  husband,  in  sight  of  this  church, 
and  at  the  age  of  nearly  ninety-four,  and  being  the 
nearest  link  that  connects  us  with  the  first  settlers  of 
this  ancient  town.  The  word  grandfather,  with  two 
greats  to  it,  will  carry  this  lady  back,  genealogically, 
to  England,  at  a  period  when  the  passengers  of  the 
Ma^^flower  were  quietly  located  in  Holland,  and  when 
no  Indian  in  these  colonies  had  ever  beheld  a  pale- 
faced  European.  This  fact  arose  from  several  gene- 
rations being  born  late  in  the  lives  of  their  fathers. 
"Father  Bowen"  died  February  4,  1675,  at  an  ad- 
vanced age,  [I  know  not  what,]  and  two  f^imilies  of 
his  grand-children,  containing  fourteen  persons,  lived 
one  thousand  and  thirty-nine  years,  being  an  average 
of  over  seventy-four  years  each. 

De  mortuis  nil  nisi  veritm. 

The  /rj/t/i  is  our  friend.  Rev.  James  0.  Barney,  the 
present  pastor,  a  graduate  of  Brown  University,  and 
ordained  February  4,  1824,  and  whose  labors  and 
success,  and  whose  long  appreciation  by  this  people. 


37 


is  a  subject  ^vllicll  will  tell  its  own  story, — an  agree- 
able task,  of  which  I  have  no  prescriptive  right  to 
rol)  the  future  historian.  Long  may  it  yet  be  before 
his  successor  shall  be  finally  announced. 

Thus  much  of  this  ancient  church.  The  town,  as  it 
originally  existed,  has  given  birth  to  seven  towns  and 
fragments  of  three  or  four  more ;  and  in  the  follow- 
ing order :  Swansea,  in  1667 ;  Attleborough,  in  1694  ; 
Cumberland  and  Barrington  as  it  now  is,  and  Warren, 
in  1746;  Seekonk,  in  1812;  and  PaAvtucket,  in  1828. 
Thus,  to  use  geographically  a  genealogical  figure,  this 
old  town  has  had  three  children  and  four  grand-chil- 
dren,— all  now  living  and  doing  well.  The  venerable 
mother,  instead  of  one  log-thatched  church  and  thirty 
families,  now  has  thirty-eight  churches  and  thirty  thou- 
sand inhabitants ;  and,  as  offshoots  and  adopted  chil- 
dren, we  cordially,  in  her  behalf,  extend  to  you  all  a 
maternal  and  fraternal  o-reetino;. 

Without  time  for  anything  like  connected  history, 
we  can  only  slightly  glance  at  a  few  of  the  leading 
events  Avithin  the  limits  of  this  mother  of  towns. 
Here,  for  forty  years,  lived,  and  died,  the  venerable 
patriarch  who  was  the  first  and  sole  white  inhabitant 
of  Boston,  and  who  raised  from  English  seeds  the  first 
apple  in  New  England.  Here,  too,  Roger  Williams, 
[whose  skeleton,  by  one  of  Nature's  singular  trans- 
mutations, now  exists  in  Avood,]  built  his  cabin  and 
planted  his  first  and  last  corn,  before  going  to  settle 
the  first  free  State  in  the  world.  (?)  Here  was  shed' 
the  first  blood  in  King  Philip's  war,  and  here  was  cap- 
tured the  last  of  his  commanders;  and  that  direful 


38 


drama,  wliicli  for  more  than  twelve  montlis  drencliod 
New  England  in  blood,  and  spread  tire  and  devasta- 
tion in  every  direction,  was  opened  and  closed  here. 
Twenty-nine  of  the  men  of  this  sparsely  settled  town 
■were  furnished  for  the  arm}^,  thirteen  of  whom  were 
in  the  great  fight  at  Narragansett,  in  Rhode  Island ; 
and  those  who  remained  to  take  care  of  the  wives  and 
children,  contrilnited  four  hundred  and  eighty-four 
pounds,  five  shillings  and  five  pence,  in  all,  for  the 
support  of  that  Indian  w\ar.  These  patriotic  sacrifices 
■were  in  all  sorts  of  sums,  from  one  shilling  by  Ebenezer 
Amidown,  to  one  hundred  pounds  by  Nathaniel  Paine. 
The  great  city  of  New  York  was  indebted  to  this  town 
for  special  favors  two  centuries  ago.  After  Manhattan 
had  been  settled  by  the  Dutch,  they  were  joined  by  a 
colony  of  English.  This  mixed  people  were  without 
an  organized  government,  and  no  man  among  them 
was  fitted  for  the  task.  They  horrowed  the  services  of 
a  citizen  of  this  town,  who  understood  Dutch  and 
English,  and  had  all  the  other  necessary  qualifica- 
tions in  an  eminent  degree.  He  straightened  their 
difficulties,  organized  a  good  municipal  government, 
and  w^as  unanimously  elected  the  first  mayor  of  the 
city  of  New  York.  He  was  re-elected  ;  and  after  serv- 
ing two  years,  thought  he  had  got  them  trained  so 
that  they  could  manage  for  themselves,  took  leave 
of  them,  receiving  their  united  benedictions,  and  re- 
turned to  his  family  and  home  in  this  town ;  and  his 
grave  is  with  us  to  this  day; — the  w^orthy  Thomas 
Willett.  (y)  The  town  has  given  birth  to  several 
very  eminent  men,  and  among  them  Benjamin  West, 
the  distinguished  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  As- 


39 


tronomy  in  Brown  University — a  philosopher  whose 
merits  and  reputation  are  co-extensive  with  astro- 
nomical science. 

There  was  another  of  "Nature's  noblemen"  amono- 
the  original  settlers  of  the  town,  whose  grave  is  with 
us  to  this  day ; — John  Brown,  who  was  elected  and 
served  as  Governor's  Assistant  for  seventeen  years. 
He  was  the .  first  magistrate  in  the  United  Colonies 
who  raised  his  voice  against  coercive  support  of  the 
ministry,  taking  the 'stand  that  all  church  support 
should  be  voluntary,  and  backed  his  precepts  by  lib- 
eral example.  He  was  a  man  of  abilities,  intelligence, 
piety  and  patriotism,  and  was  buried  with  military  and 
civic  honors  in  1662.  He  has  worthy  descendants,  one 
of  whom  is  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Arrange- 
ments on  this  occasion. 

As  we  glide  down  into  later  periods,  we  are  arrested 
by  the  fact  that  in  the  affairs  of  the  Revolution  this 
town  acted  a  noble  and  patriotic  part.  The  hatred  of 
oppression  and  love  of  liberty  coming  in  contact  early, 
struck  a  spark  that  ignited  the  united  hearts  of  this 
people,  and  continued  to  blaze,  undiminished,  till  the 
completion  of  National  Independence.  The  town 
unanimously  voted  instructions  to  their  representa- 
tives in  the  Legislature  to  resist,  to  the  last  extremity, 
and  inch  by  inch,  every  act  of  aggression  on  the  part  of 
the  British  Crown.  A  letter  of  these  instructions  by 
the  town's  Committee  of  Correspondence,  presumed 
to  have  been  drawn  up  by  its  chairman,  Ephraim 
Starkweather,  breathes  a  spirit  of  intelligence,  judg- 
ment and  patriotism,  clothed  in  a  soul-stirring  elo- 
quence, but  rarely  to  be  found  in  the  whole  annals 


40 


of  that  uroat  devolution,  and  o;ave  evidence  that  the 
seeds  of  the  subhme  eloquence  of  Otis  found  a  con- 
genial and  prolific  soil  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  of 
this  town. 

The  drafts  upon  this  town  for  men,  for  various  peri- 
ods of  military  service,  required  two  hundred  and  six, 
which  were  all  answered  promptly.  The  voluntary  en- 
listments, for  various  terms  of  time,  were  one  hundred 
and  four.  Thus  the  town  furnished  three  hundred 
and  ten  of  its  men,  from  beardless  3'outh  to  veterans 
in  age,  for  the  continental  army,  thirty-seven  of  whom 
served  as  commissioned  officers ;  and  the  records  show 
but  one  single  desertion  from  the  post  of  military  duty. 
Besides  furnishing  its  portion  of  the  supplies  called  for 
by  the  government  for  the  military  chest,  the  town 
voluntarily  imposed  heavy  taxation  upon  itself  for 
the  comfort  of  its  own  absent  soldiers ;  and  the  inhab- 
itants also  made  voluntary  contributions,  six  pounds 
of  which  came  from  this  church,  for  the  relief  of  the 
poor  of  Boston,  sufferers  by  means  of  the  Boston  port 
bill;  and  the  treasurer  of  the  Provincial  Congress  ac- 
knowledged the  receipt  of  ten  pounds  from  this  town 
to  help  sustain  the  expenses  of  that  body.  Through- 
out the  Revolution,  the  patriotic  conduct  of  this  people 
will  bear  an  honorable  comparison  with  almost  any 
spot  in  the  whole  thirteen  colonies,  and  deserves  to 
be  remembered  in  gratitude  by  all  their  descendants. 
And  throughout  all  the  past  history  thus  glanced  at, 
the  town  has  been  ample  in  its  provisions  for  the  edu- 
cation of  its  youth,  as  then  compared  with  surrounding 
places ;  and  perhaps  in  this  is  to  be  found  the  secret  of 
much  of  its  early  reputation  nnd  patriotic  inlhience.  ik) 


41 


But  let  us  turn  from  these  tedious  locals,  and  pay 
a  glancing  tribute  of  respect  to  our  common  country, 
especially  as  this  is  her  natal  day.  Such  are  the  facil- 
ities of  the  present  day,  and  for  which  we  should  be 
profoundly  thankful,  that  the  history  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  a  good  view  of  our  subsequent  annals,  have 
become  familiar  to  the  school-boys;  but  there  are 
poiiUs  in  our  colonial  existence  which  may  have  too 
much  escaped  the  attention  of  even  "children  of  a 
larger  growth."  By  this  I  mean,  there  is  a  sort  of 
three-fold  connecting  idea,  through  which  may  be 
seen  the  gradual  development  of  our  childhood  of 
colonial  history,  and  our  manhood  in  the  final  inde- 
pendent Union  of  this  Republic. 

On  the  11th  of  November,  1620,  [old  style,]  there 
was  drawn  up,  on  the  lid  of  a  chest,  on  board  the 
Mayflower,  in  Plymouth  harbor,  and  signed  by  forty- 
one  of  the  principal  men  of  the  first  band  of  Pilgrims, 
a  platform  of  civil  government  which,  notwithstand- 
ing all  the  civic  and  ecclesiastic  aberrations  from  it 
in  later  times,  contained  the  elemental  seeds  of  all 
that  is  now  valuable  in  the  civil  polity  of  this  great 
Western  Empire.  I  think  that  the  more  that  brief 
but  comprehensive  document  is  studied,  and  studied, 
too,  in  connection  with  the  noble  and  most  instruc- 
tive farewell  discourse  of  John  Robinson,  their  pastor, 
before  they  left  Leyden,  the  more  will  this  important 
and  fundamental  truth  become  apparent.  (/)  This  is 
the  first  'point  in  what  I  denominated  a  three-fold  idea, 
the  whole  essence  of  which  was,  under  God,  human 
freedom  enshrined  in  human  progress. 

The  second  point  in  this  progress  was  in  1052 ;  and 
6 


it  developed  itself  through  tlie  medium  ol'  coinage. 
The  coinage  of  money  has,  in  all  nations,  ever  been 
considered  a  prerogative  of  the  government ;  and  de- 
vices upon  coin  are  intended  as  emblematic  of  some 
leading  proclivity  of  the  people.  The  first  coin  struck 
in  North  America,  at  Boston,  in  1G52,  was  intended  as 
a  Liberty  coin.  It  was,  in  later  times,  and  for  special 
reasons,  called  the  "  Pine  Tree  Shilling,"  but  it  was  no 
such  thing ;  it  was  as  bold  an  effort  at  a  Declaration 
of  Independence  as  they  then  dare  make,  and  w^as 
founded  on  the  following  passages  from  the  seven- 
teenth chapter  of  the  Prophet  Ezekiel : 

"  Son  of  man,  put  forth  a  riddle,  and  speak  a  parable  unto  the  house  of 
Israel.  And  say,  thus  saith  the  Lord  God ;  a  great  eagle  with  great  wings, 
long  wings,  full  of  feathers,  which  had  divers  colours,  came  unto  Lebanon, 
and  took  the  highest  branch  of  the  cedar :  He  cropped  off  the  top,  and 
carried  it  into  a  land  of  traffick ;  he  set  it  in  a  city  of  merchants :  and  it 
shall  bring  forth  boughs,  and  beai'  fruit,  and  be  a  goodly  cedar ;  and  under 
it  shall  dwell  all  fowl  of  every  wing ;  in  the  shadow  of  the  branches  thereof 
shall  they  dwell." 

It  is  a  quite  remarkable  feature  in  the  Prophet  Eze- 
kiel, that  the  success  of  man,  under  Divine  Providen- 
tial blessing,  is  variously  typified  under  the  idea  of  a 
ring  within  a  ring — the  first  as  enclosing  the  acts  of 
men,  and  the  outer  ring  as  the  surrounding  Providen- 
tial protection.  We  are  now  prepared  to  present  the 
solution  of  this  prophetic  riddle  as  exhibited  in  this 
first  coin,  erroneously,  but  for  reason  of  fear,  called 
the  "  Pine  Tree  Shilling,"  pence,  and  so  forth.  The 
coin  has  a  cedar  tree  enclosed  in  a  ring,  with  the  word 
"  Massachusetts  "  in  an  outer  ring ;  and  on  the  opposite 
side, "  1652  :  XII  pence,"  in  the  inner  ring,  and  "New 
England  "  in  the  outer  ring,  or  between  the  two  rings. 
This  coin  was  thus  struck  in  the  time  of  the  Common- 


wealtli,  under  Croiiiwoll,  wlicii  tlic  rcstr.aiiits  ol'  mon- 
archy were  hardly  thought  of  in  the  colonies.  They 
thought  that  they  were  a  full  grown,  goodly  cedar ; 
but  they  were  too  fast ;  the  time  indicated  in  Ezekiel's 
riddle  had  not  yet  come.  In  a  little  time,  Charles 
Second  came  to  the  throne ;  monarchy  was  restored ; 
and  they  began  to  be  fearful  about  their  coin.  The 
King's  Commissioners  reported  it  to  him,  but  knew 
nothing  about  the  riddle  of  Liberty  contained  in  it. 
Sir  Thomas  Temple,  who  was  well  acquainted  in  New 
England,  and  a  sound  friend  to  the  colonies,  and  yet 
a  confident  of  the  King,  suddenly  ameliorated  much 
of  the  King's  ill  feeling  from  this  encroachment  upon 
his  prerogative  in  coinage.  The  King  asked  Sir 
Thomas  why  they  dared  to  coin  money  contrary  to 
law?  He  took  some  of  these  shillings  from  his 
pocket,  and  showing  them  to  the  King,  remarked, 
evasively,  that  these  people  knew  but  little  about 
law;  that  they  were  coined  merely  for  convenience, 
not  supposing  there  would  be  any  objections.  The 
King  asked  what  tree  that  was?  Sir  Thomas  told 
him  it  was  the  Royal  Oak  of  Boscobel.  [When 
Charles  Second,  in  his  attempt  to  regain  his  father's 
throne,  was  routed  by  the  army  of  Cromwell,  at  Wor- 
cester, he  saved  his  life  by  hiding  in  the  thick  bouo-hs 
of  an  oak  tree  at  Boscobel ;  and  after  his  restoration, 
this  tree  acquired  the  name  of  the  Eoyal  Oak ;  and 
Sir  Thomas  Temple  thus  evasively  called  the  tree  on 
the  coin  the  B-oyal  Oak,  in  honor  of  his  preservation, 
adding  that  they  dare  not  put  his  name  on,  being  then 
under  the  Commonwealth.]  The  King,  smiling,  said  : 
"They  are  a  set  of  honest  dogsr  let  them  coin  theii- 


44 


>!lijllings ."  And  tlioy  contimicd  to  coin  llieir  shillinirs 
and  pence,  without  much  alteration,  calHng  it  an  oak 
or  a  pine,  as  best  suited  their  whim,  only  keeping  out 
of  siuht  the  oriiJ-inal  secret  of  their  cedar  tree  coin. 

There  is  wisdom  to  be  learned  from  this  second  point 
in  our  three-fold  idea  of  the  development  of  American 
freedom.  They  were  right,  in  the  great  outer  ring  of 
God's  ultimate  designs,  in  setting  His  eagle  to  crop  the 
monarchies  of  tlie  Old  AVorld  and  to  replant  the  twigs  to 
grow  into  Republics — setting  the  first  example  in  our 
portion  of  the  earth.  But  nations,  like  men,  are  some- 
times impatient  and  too  fast.  They  thought  the  small 
twig  plucked  from  the  top  of  the  prophetic  cedar  of 
Lebanon,  and  developed  in  the  miniature  platform  of 
the  Mayflower,  had  grown  into  a  goodly  tree  at  Boston 
in  thirty-two  short  years,  so  that  it  could  bear  national 
fruit,  and  shelter,  in  its  ample  boughs,  "  all  fowls  of 
every  wing;"  or,  in  other  words,  welcome  the  op- 
pressed of  all  nations  under  their  protecting  shadow. 
But  such  was  not  the  case ;  the  time  had  not  arrived  ; 
they  had  to  do  more  than  to  "  wait  a  Ultle  longer." 

;,  ,       "  Mftn,  jn  feebleness,  can  plan. 

But  God,  in  wisdom,  executes." 

Their  emblematic  Declaration  of  Independence  was, 
indeed,  the  still,  small  Vox  Dei,  but,  in  His  wisdom,  not 
then  to  be  ratified  by  the  Vox  pojndi ;  but,  after  a  cen- 
tury and  a  quarter  more  had  rolled  away,  and  Divine 
Providence  had  so  shaped  the  affairs  of  men  that  all 
was  ripe,  then  came,  in  thunder  tones,  the  Vox  Dei, 
ratified,  in  universal  acclamation,  by  the  Vox  pojmli, 
and  developed  itself  in  the  immortal  declarative  Char.- 


45 


ter  of  our  Liberties,  read  here  to-day ; — and  idthoiigli 
they  had  no  fVu-ther  need  of  the  boughs  of  the  cedar, 
having  received  the  whole  canopy  of  the  stars  as  our 
immortal  birthright,  yet  they  retained  the  ar/eut  that 
cropped  the  twig,  and  commissioned  his  ever-expand- 
ing wings  to  hover  over  the  down-trodden  stranger 
from  every  clime,  and  to  forever  glitter  upon  our  coin 
as  an  emblem  of  the  great  enigma  of  human  freedom 
and  human  rights,  (m) 

Such  is  the  three-fold  idea  of  the  gradual  develop- 
ment of  the  great  problem  of  human  rights,  as  seen 
in  the  summary  of  our  colonial  history.  From  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  eighty-four  years  ago 
to-day,  the  history  of  the  growth  and  present  ener- 
gies of  our  Republic  is  known  of  all  men,  and  per- 
haps is  well  expressed,  in  a  single  word,  by  the  term 
Progression.  A  progress  in  that  art  and  skill  which 
are  essential  to  a  nation's  prosperity, — progress  in  that 
knowledge  which  Lord  Bacon  declares  to  be  but  an- 
other name  for  power, — progress  in  those  all-conquer- 
ing energies  which  have  stamped  their  impress  not 
only  throughout  our  own  land,  but  on  the  distant  na- 
tions of  the  Eastern  World,  and  unbarred  the  icy  gates 
of  the  frozen  North, — progress  in  all  the  elements  of 
that  civilization  which  is  commanding  the  universal  re- 
spect of  the  nations  of  the  earth, — and  progress  in  the 
knowledge  and  practice  of  Christianity,  without  which 
no  nation  can  be  permanently  prosperous  or  happy. 

Such  are  the  leading  features  of  our  Republic  to-day. 
It  is  true  that  we  can  see  the  threatening  penumbra 
of  a  dark  cloud  in  the  South,  and  hear  the  distant 
mutterings  of  a  harmless  thunder,  and  we  can  occa- 


46 


sionally  sec  laiiit  and  unmeaning  Jiaslies  of  political 
lightning ;  but  showers  are  refreshing  to  the  land,  and 
usually  give  us  a  purer  atmosphere.  It  is  not  in  the 
power  of  any  men,  or  parties  of  men,  to  rend  asunder 
our  well  cemented  bond  of  Union,  merely  because  it 
is  not  yet  what  we  should  all  like  to  have  it.  We 
may  be  too  fast  in  our  anticipations,  as  well  as  the 
little  nation  of  Massachusetts  in  1652,  when  they 
coined  their  shilling.  The  halcj^on  days  of  a  political 
millenium  are  not  to  be  expected  till  Divine  Provi- 
dence sees  best ;  and  we  must  be  content  to  each  one 
endeavor  to  clear  his  own  skirts  from  all  wrong,  and 
"  wait  a  little  longer."  This  year  we  are  only  passing 
through  one  of  our  accustomed  quadrennial  political 
spasms,  and  before  another  twelve-month  shall  have 
rolled  away,  we  shall  again  see  a  noble  spectacle — a 
ceremony  that  makes  thrones  and  diadems  tremble — 
that  of  one  national  administration  quietly  and  sub- 
missively laying  down  the  robes  of  office,  and  another 
administration  as  quietly  and  calmly  putting  them  on  ; 
and  all  this  mighty  change,  involving  the  interests  of 
many  millions  of  our  race,  at  the  simple  will  of  the 
sovereign  people,  expressed  through  a  harmless  bal- 
lot, instead  of  a  hostile  bullet. 

Our  Republic  has  hardly  yet  begun  its  career  in 
the  destiny  assigned  it.  We  are  yet  to  jiass  through 
many  more  revolutions ;  so  tliat  if  the  statesman  of 
to-day  could  re-visit  his  native  home  a  century  hence, 
he  would  search  in  vain  for  some  of  his  now  familiar 
institutions.  But  these  approaching  revolutions  are 
not  to  be  produced  by  the  cartridge-box ;  they  will 
be  achieved  at  the  ballot-box,  and  under  an  increased 


47 


inliuonce  of  the  band-box.  And  although  tliore  may 
be  pohticians  who  would,  if  they  could,  Idot  out  the 
principles  of  the  founders  of  the  Republic,  and  sell 
their  immortal  birthright  for  the  potage  of  ollice,  yet 
there  is  a  recuperative  moral  power  always  held  in  re- 
serve, and  equal  to  the  emergency.  To  short-sighted 
and  desponding  men  it  has  certainly  appeared  as  if  de- 
parted greatness  itself  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  polit- 
ical degeneracy,  and  that  even  the  principles  and  fame, 
and  name  and  dust  of  Washington  were  to  be  driven 
into  oblivion.     But  there  is,  in  the  providence  of  God, 

"  A  sovereign  balm  for  every  wound, 
A  cordial  for  our  fears  ;" 

and  the  name  and  fame,  and  principles  and  counsels, 
and  sacred  dust  of  the  revered  Father  of  his  Country 
shall  be  preserved,  and  exert  their  intended  influence 
on  unborn  generations  of  men ;  and  for  this  we  have 
an  ample  guaranty  in  the  fact  that  woman,  the  cheer- 
ing solace  in  man*s  last  extremity, — sublime  woman, — 
now  holds  the  keys  of  Mount  Vernon. 

And  now.  Fellow-citizens,  may  that  overruling  Di- 
vine Providence  whose  protection  has  encucled  the 
inhabitants  of  this  ancient  settlement  throufirh  the 
sunshine  of  prosperity  and  storms  of  adversity  for 
more  than  two  centuries,  still  protect  and  bless  you 
and  your  descendants,  down  the  long  vista  of  coming 
ages;  and  may  the  lessons  of  wisdom  and  fraternal 
influence  which  the  motive  of  your  gathering  this 
day  is  so  well  calculated  to  inspire,  be  inscribed  as 
with  a  sunbeam  on  the  tablets  of  your  town,  and  all 
its  churcheS;  and  there  leave  its  impress  forever. 


APPENDANT    NOTES 


[Note  A.— Page  12.] 
Extract  from  the  "  Athene  et  Fasti  Oxonienses,"  by  Anthony 
Wood,  Third  London  Edition  ;  now  in  Library  of  Harvard  University  : 

"  Samuel  Newman,  a  learned  divine  of  his  time,  received  education 
in  this  University ;  but  being  puritanically  affected,  he  left  it,  went  into 
New  England,  became  a  Congregational  man,  minister  of  the  Church 
of  Rchoboth  there,  a  zealous  man  in  the  way  he  jjrofessed,  indefatigable 
in  his  studies,  and  marvelously  read  in  the  Holy  Scriptures." 

This  extract  and  a  correspondence  between  Wood  and  Dr.  Increase 
Mather  in  1690,  contain  some  discrepant  inaccuracies,  but  they  have 
been  carefully  collated  and  corrected  from  the  records  of  the  Univer- 
sity, so  that  the  sentence  in  the  text  contains  the  facts  in  a  condensed 
form.  [See  said  correspondence  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  187, 
Third  Series. 

[Note  B.— Page  12.] 
This  Dr.  Featly  was  one  of  the  brilliant  scholars  of  his  day,  and  Wil- 
liam Gouge  was  one  of  the  ministers  called  the  "  Assembly  of  Divines," 
and  was  appointed  one  of  the  annotators  of  the  Bible.  They  each  wrote 
a  prefatory  advertisement,  which  is  in  the  third  edition  of  Newman's 
Concordance  ;  thus  giving  their  high  sanction  to  the  merits  of  his  Bibh- 
cal  attainments.  [See  more  of  them  in  note  on  the  Concordance,  and  ui 
Lempriere's  Biographical  Dictionary. 

[Note  C— Page  15.] 
Taking  into  view  the  then  price  of  lands,  the  general  price  of  mer- 
chandize, and  annual  cost  of  living  as  style  was  then,  and  it  will  be 

7 


50  APPENDANT     NOTES. 

found  tliat  jCnOO  was  a  larger  cstotc  than  $"20,000  would  be  now. 
Thus  he  was  then  ranked  among  their  wealthy  men  ;  but  he  used  it  aa 
becoming  a  meek,  pious  and  humble  christian, — considering  it  in  the 
light  of  a  boon  from  heaven,  with  which  he  was  bound  to  be  kind, 
benevolent  and  charitable  to  the  less  fortunate  of  his  flock. 

[Note  D.— Page  IC] 
"  This  combination,  entered  into  by  the  general  consent  of  all  the 
inhabitiints,  alter  general  notice  given  the  23d  of  the  4th  month  [July]. 
We  whose  names  are  imdcrwritten,  being,  by  the  providence  of  CJod, 
inhabitiints  of  Seacunk,  intending  there  to  settle,  do  covenant  and  bind 
ourselves  one  to  another  to  subject  our  persons  [torn  off — probably, 
according  to  law  and  equity]  to  nine  persons,  or  any  five  of  the  nine, 
which  shall  be  chosen  by  the  major  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  plan- 
tation, and  we  [torn  off — probably,  promise  and  agree']  to  be  sulyect 
to  all  wholesome  [torn  off — probably,  rules  and  regulations  made]  by 
them,  and  to  assist  them,  according  to  our  ability  and  estate,  and  to  give 
timely  notice  unto  them  of  any  such  thing  as  in  our  conscience  may 
prove  dangerous  unto  the  plantation,  and  this  combination  to  continue 
untill  we  shall  subject  ourselves  jointly  to  some  other  government." 
(Signed,)     *Walter  Palmer,  Ephraim  Hunt, 

*Edward  Smith,  Peter  Hunt, 

Edward  Bennett,  *William  Smith, 

Ro})crt  Titus,  John  Peren, 

Abraham  Martin,  Zacliery  lloades, 

John  jMatthewes,  Job  Lane, 

Kihvard  Sale,  *Alexander  Winchester, 

Ralph  Shepherd,  *IIonry  Smith, 

Samuel  Newman,  *Stephen  Payne, 

William  Checsborough,     llalph  Allen, 
*Richard  Wright,  Thomas  Bliss, 

*Ilobei-t  Martin,  George  Kendricke, 

*Bichard  Bowen,  John  Allen, 

Joseph  Torrey,  William  Sabin, 

James  Clarke,  Thomas  Cooper. 

The  orthography  as  in  the  original  is  retained  in  the  above. 
Those  njarkcd  tlius  *  were  the  first  chosen  "  townsmen," — in  Decem- 
l)er,  1643,  and  their  first  meeting  as  such,  Januaiy  3,  1643,  O.  S., 


APPENDANT     NOTES.  51 

and  Alexander  Winchester  was  chairman.  From  a  comparison  of  thcpo 
dates  and  other  circumstances,  I  suppose  this  compact  was  made  at  Wi'y- 
moutli,  hcfore  the  ojencral  migration,  wliich  most  prohably  did  not  take 
place  till  tlie  spring  of  1044,  0.  S.*  These  thirty  names  were  nearly 
or  quite  all  then  heads  of  families,  and  may  be  considered  as  the  original, 
actual  settlers  of  Rehoboth,  although  there  were  non-resident  stockhold- 
ers in  the  company,  more  or  less  of  whom,  at  various  periods,  j(jined 
them  as  later  residents. 

The  phrase  "  mtending  there  to  settle  "  will  justify  this  view  of  the 
matter. 

Stockholders  were  those  who  participated  in  the  expense  of  fixtures 
and  improvements,  and  not  speculators  in  lands,  so  cheap  that  seven 
towns  cost  fifty  shillings  and  a  coat.     [See  Note  F. 

[Note  E.— Page  17.] 
For  many  of  these  early  New  England  habits,  see  Sears's  "  Pictures 
of  Olden  Thne,"  and  Palfrey's  Hist.  New  Eng.,  Vol.  II. 

[Note  F,— Page  18.] 
Tliis  town  was  originally  bought  of  Massasoit,  in  1641,  for  ten  fath- 
oms of  beads  or  ivarnpum  [money].  This  was  delicate  shells  stninw 
like  beads,  and  was  the  Indian  currency.  Their  white  they  called 
wampum  [white],  and  their  black  money  they  called  suchauhock — seki 
bemg  their  adjective  for  black.  This  bead  money  was  nine  shillings  the 
fathom  in  1630,  but,  owing  to  the  fall  of  the  price  of  beaver  in  England, 
it  was,  at  the  time  of  this  purchase,  only  five  shillmgs  per  fathom ;  so 
that  this  town  cost  £2  10s.  of  English  money,  and  a  coat  which  the  chief 
made  them  throw  in  to  boot.  This  trade  was  made  at  the  house  of  Roger 
Williams,  at  Providence,  he  acting  as  interpreter.  Thus  the  Indians, 
witliout  a  written  language,  transacted  their  business  in  "  black  and 
white  " — especially  their  cash  trades.  [For  Indian  Coin,  see  Williams's 
Key,  p.  128. 

[Note   G.— Page  20.] 
These  facts  are  gathered  from  a  brief  family  record  and  notes  written 
by  his  grandson  in  an  old  family  Bible  which  I  deciphered  twenty  years 
ago,  and  then  almost  illegible. 

*Tlie  year  then  commenced  on  the  25tli  of  .March. 


62  A  I'  P  E  N  D  A  X  T     N  0  T  E  S  , 

[XoTE  II.— Page  3;?.] 
Much  of  this  note  is  extracted  fnun  an  ahlo  })ut  too  l)rief  a  paper  read 
))efore  the  Old  Colony  Historical  iSociety  by  its  Presi<lent,  Hon.  John 
Daggett.     Such  parts  of  it  as  are  from  his  paper  are  here  enclosed  in 
brackets : 

[The  work  now  exhibited  to  the  Society  is  jjn  interesting  relic  of  the 
past.  It  is  the  tliird  edition  of  llev.  Samuel  Newman's  "  Concordance 
of  the  Bilde." 

This  Concordance  seems  to  have  been  not  merely  a  new  work,  but 
substantially  an  original  work,  and  the  author  of  it  was  a  minister  (»f 
the  retired  settlement  of  llehobcjth,  about  ten  miles  from  the  ancient 
(■ohannet  [Taunton]. 

Most  of  the  first  generation  of  ministers  in  the  New  England  Colonies 
were  learned  men,  educated  at  the  Universities  in  England — at  first, 
ministers  of  the  Established  Church,  who,  from  non-conformity,  were 
obliged  to  flee  from  religious  persecution  at  home,  and  to  seek  an  asy- 
lum in  the  American  wilderness.  Many  of  them  were  eminently  prac- 
tical men,  fittedljy  their  varied  experience  in  life  to  be  the  advisers,  the 
guides,  or  the  pioneers,  of  their  flocks  in  these  early  settlements.  Among 
them  was  Samuel  Newman,  who  followed,  or  rather  led,  his  people  into 
the  rough  and  hardy  soil  of  Kehoboth,  where  an  original  settlement  was 
fonned  in  1643,  and  where  he  remained  in  the  laborious  and  faithful 
discharge  of  his  duties  as  pastor  of  the  first  church  for  a  period  of  twenty 
years.     He  died  July  5,  1603. 

He  was  a  learned  man ;  and  had  a  large  library  for  that  age.  His 
English  books  were  appraised  at  £4  ;  his  other  books  at  £18  ;  by  the 
latter  I  understand  his  classical  works  in  the  ancient  lantmages.  This 
library  he  bequeathed  to  his  son  Noah. 

Any  one  having  an  ordinary  knowledge  of  books,  must  see  at  once 
tliat  such  a  work  required  great  labor,  research  and  discrimination ;  and 
learned  divines  who  have  examined  it,  and  are  well  ([ualified  to  judge  of 
its  merits,  say  that  it  is  a  work  of  great  learning  and  ability,  especially 
for  that  age,  when  Bi])lical  literature  was  comparatively  imperfect  and 
limited.  It  was  a  work  of  great  utility  ;  not  only  in  itself,  but  as  laying 
the  foundation  f<jr  subsequent  works  of  a  similar  character.  In  1662, 
a  short  time  before  Nfswman's  death,  an  edition  of  this  work,  somewhat 
altered,  was  published  1)y  the  learned  scholars  of  Cambridge  University, 
Ensrlaiid,  at  tlic  University  Press,  which  was  after\tards  known  to  the 


APPENDANT     NOTES.  53 

public  as  the  "  Cambridge  Concordance  " — tlnis  robljing  Nevmian.  the 
real  author,  of  the  reputation  which  belonged  to  him.  A  copy  of  this 
Cambridge  edition  is  in  tlio  liand.s  of  tlie  writer.  Its  title-[)ago  is  ''  A 
Concordance  of  the  Holy  Scriptures;  with  the  various  Readings  botli  in 
Text  and  Margin,  by  S.  N.  \^  University  Seal,']  Cambridge.  Printed 
by  John  Field,  printer  to  the  Universitie  16G2."  In  the  preface, 
however,  the  editor  (whose  name  is  not  given)  acknowledges  that  it  is 
founded  on  Newman's  work  and  his  plan  adopted.  On  comparing,  it 
will  be  found  that  Newman's  quotations  are  abridged. 

It  is  related  of  the  author,  that,  while  pursuing  the  work  at  Rehoboth, 
he  was  obliged,  from  the  scarcity  of  materials  for  light  in  that  infant  set- 
tlement, to  use  pine  knots  for  the  purpose. 

It  is  justly  a  matter  of  no  little  satisfaction  to  us  that  the  author  of 
such  a  monument  of  learning  and  industry,  should  have  completed  it 
while  he  was  an  inhabitant  of  the  Old  Colony. 

Notices  of  this  work  are  found  in  several  of  the  ancient  historians  and 
writers.  Mather,  in  his  IMagnalia,  says  of  him :  "He  was  a  hard 
student ;  and  as  much  toil  and  oil  as  his  learned  namesake,  Neander, 
employed  m  illustrations  and  commentaries  upon  the  old  Greek  pagan 
poets,  our  Newman  bestowed  in  compiling  his  Concordances  of  the 
sacred  Scriptures." 

In  the  celebrated  "  Life  of  Hugh  Peters,"  the  work  is  erroneously 
attributed  to  Cruden,  who  did  not  publish  his  Concordance  till  about  a 
hundred  years  after  Newman ;  the  biographer  evidently  confounding  the 
one  with  the  other.  "The  Rev.  Mr.  Newman,  an  eminent  scholar  in 
the  University  of  Oxford,  Eng.,  &c.  This  pious  Clergyman  with  his 
pious  companions,  went  and  formed  the  settlement  of  Rehoboth.  They 
built  a  Church  and  encircled  it  with  a  set  of  houses  like  a  half  moon, 
facing  the  west,  where  they  worshipped  the  Creator  with  great  devo- 
tion, and  Newman  taught  their  children  the  arts  and  sciences  gratis. 
In  that  barren  soil  Newman  spent  a  useful  life,  and  made  to  himself  a 
name  in  the  Christian  Church  that  will  last  as  long  as  the  Bible.  There 
he  formed  the  first  Concordance  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  which 
was  ever  made  in  the  English  tongue.  The  energy  and  Herculean  labor 
in  this  necessary  Index  of  the  Bible,  even  astonished  both  the  Old  and 
New  World,"  &c.,  &c. 

In  this  edition,  of  1658,  are  two  prefaces — one  written  by  P.  Fcatly, 
and  the  other,  by  W.  Gouge.     Some  interest  to  us,  attaches  to  their 


54  A  r  PENDANT     NOTES. 

names  from  tlieir  connoction  with  Newman's  Concordance.  Who  won! 
they?  The  first  was  ihmbtloss  no  other  tliaii  the  famous  Dr.  Daniel 
Featly,  a  learned  and  distinj^nislied  divine  in  England.  lie  was  liorn 
at  Charlton.  Oxfordshire,  Mareli,  15S2,  and  educated  at  O.xford,  and 
was  niaile  fellow  of  Corpus  Christi,  IGO'2.  He  was  distinguished  as  a 
theologian,  and  hy  his  elo((ucnce  as  a  preaclier,  was  appointed  Chaplain 
to  Sir  Thitmas  Edmond,  Ambassador  to  France,  wliere  lu;  remained  with 
him  for  three  years.  In  1()13  he  was  Rector  of  Northhill,  Cornwall, 
Chaplain  to  Abbott,  the  Primate,  and  Rector  of  Lambeth.  In  1017  he 
received  the  degree  of  D.  D.,  and  was  promoted  by  his  patron  to  the 
rectory  of  All-Hallows,  London,  which  he  aftenvards  exchanged  for 
Acton ;  and  finally  became  the  last  Provost  of  Chelsea  College,  where 
he  died  iu  April,  1645.  He  was  unprisoned  in  16-43,  for  his  oppo- 
sition to  the  Covenant,  and  came  near  losing  his  life. 

He  was  the  author  of  "  Cijgnea  Cantio,''''  1629,  and  "the  scholastic 
duel  between  him  and  King  James,"  besides  some  forty  religious  works 
of  a  controversial  character. 

William  Gouge,  the  writer  of  the  other  preface,  was  also  a  distin- 
guished divine  and  author.  He  was  minister  of  Blackfriars.  Pie  was 
educated  at  King's  College,  where  "he  was  remarkable  for  not  being 
absent  from  morning  and  evening  prayers  for  nine  years,  and  for  read- 
in"-  15  chapters  of  the  Bible  every  day."  He  died  Dec.  16,  1653. 
He  was  author  of  "The  whole  Armor  of  God,"  "Exposition  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer,"  "  Commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,"  and 
other  religious  works.     [See  Lempriere's  Biographical  Dictionary. 

He  [Newman]  had  a  large  family  of  children.  Among  them  was 
Samuel,  Jr.,  supposed  to  be  the  oldest,  wlio  lived  and  died  at  Reho- 
both  ;  Antipas,  the  minister  of  Wenham,  who  married  Elizabeth,  daugh- 
ter of  Gov.  Winthrop,  and  who  died  Oct.  15, 1672  ;  Noah,  who  was  his 
father's  successor  in  the  ministry,  and  who  died  April  16,  1678.  His 
wife  was  Joanna,  daughter  of  Rev.  Henry  Flint,  one  of  the  first  minis- 
ters of  that  part  of  Braintree  which  is  now  Quincy  ;  Hopestill,  a  daugh- 
ter, bom  at  Weymouth,  Nov.  29,  1641,  became  the  wife  of  the  Rev. 
George  Shove,  the  third  minister  of  Taunton,  and  died  March  7,  1674. 
They  had  five  children — three  sons  and  two  daughters.  Their  blood 
still  circulates  in  the  veins  of  our  neighbors ;  their  descendants  are  in 
our  vicinity. 

Mr.  Newman  made  a  will,  which  seems  not  to  have  been  discovered 


APPENDANT     NOTES.  i)5 

by  any  of  tlic  liistorlans  or  gencalo^'sts.  Tlio  extracts  wliich  I  have 
obtained  from  it  settle  some  heretofore  doubtful  points.  His  wife's 
name  was  Sibel.  He  appoints  Stephen  Paine,  sen.,  Thomas  Cooper, 
Lt.  Hunt,  "overseers  to  give  advice  to  my  distressed  Widow."  He 
names  his  three  sons,  Samuel,  Antipas  and  Noah,  and  three  daugliters. 
To  Antipas  he  gives  some  "  land  at  Wenham,'^  and  to  liis  three  daugli- 
ters £5  each.  Hopestill  is  mentioned  by  name.  He  gives  ten  shillings 
to  his  old  servants,  Mary  Humphrc}^  of  Dorchester,  Elizabeth  Cubliy  of 
"Weymouth,  and  Elizabeth  Palmer  of  Rehoboth,  and  the  same  amount 
to  "  Lydia  Winchester,  his  present  servant." 

Rev.  Samuel  Newman  was  buried  in  the  Old  Burying  Ground  at 
Seekonk.  His  dust  has  there  mmgled  with  his  mother  earth,  but  no 
monument  marks  the  spot.  A  man  of  so  much  usefulness  and  distinc- 
tion in  his  day  and  genei'ation  as  Rev.  Samuel  Newman,  should  not  be 
suffered  to  remain  without  even  the  ordinary  memorials  of  the  dead — 
such  as  mark  the  last  resting  place  of  the  most  humble  tenant  of  the 
grave.  We  often  neglect  the  living  and  honor  the  dead ;  but  we  some- 
times honor  the  living  and  forget  the  dead.] 

Thus  far  I  have  extracted  from  jMr.  Daggett's  able  paper  before  the 
Historical  Society.  I  will  now  correct  a  slight  mistake  or  two  in  the 
above,  and  make  some  additional  illustration  in  these  matters. 

"  A  large  family."  He  had  three  sons  and  one  daughter  [Hopestill]. 
The  "  three  daughters"  alluded  to  in  tlie  will  are  daughters-in-law,  the 
wives  of  his  three  sons,  a  very  common  expression  in  those  times ;  and 
he  gives  them  [m  addition  to  what  he  had  given  their  husbands,  his 
sons,]  £5  each,  and  ten  shillings  each  to  his  former  house-maids,  as 
mere  tokens  of  his  kind  personal  remembrance  of  them,  calling  them 
"  daughters,"  &c.  The  other  general  features  of  the  will  are  sufficently 
correct  as  represented  by  Mr.  Daggett. 

This  third  edition  of  the  Concordance  is  very  rare.  There  is  a  copy 
of  it  in  the  Athcni'eum  at  Boston,  presented  by  King  William  IH.,  as 
stated  in  gold  letters  on  its  cover.  The  copy  which  I  possess  is  the  one 
reserved  by  its  author  fijr  his  o^vn  use.  It  is  a  large  folio,  printed  at 
London,  1658,  in  small,  antique  type,  and  contains  1370  pages.  It 
has  passed  througli  the  ownership  of  sis  different  clergymen,  and  was 
presented  to  me  in  1858,  just  two  hundred  years  from  the  date  of  its 
imprint,  by  the  surviving  hens  of  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  AVight  of  Bristol. 


56  APPENDANT     NOTES. 

llhoik-  Island,  ;it  the  suggestion  of(jOV.  Dinmnd  and  tlic  lion.  Natliaiiit'l 
IJulloek,  to  wlio-se  kindness  and  historic  and  antiquarian  proclivities  1 
am  indebted  for  this  interesting  memorial  of  the  past. 

Fi-oin  President  Stiles's  MS.  diary:  "  Four  very  consideraljle  men, 
AVillianis.  151ackst<jne,  Newman  and  Gorton,  lived  in  a  vicinity,  with  no 
connection  and  little  acquaintance." — "  Nov.  18,  1771.  I  lodged  at 
Mr.  Hide's  at  Rchoboth.  [Rev.  Ephraini  Hyde,  the  seventh  jjastor.] 
He  cannot  recover  any  of  Mr.  Newman's  MSS. ;  he  supposes  they  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  late  JMr.  Avery,  of  Norton,  l)y  a  marriage  con- 
nection." 

Comment. — Blackstone  lived  in  Reho])oth,  Williams  in  Providence, 
and  Gorton  was  the  factious  controversialist  at  Warwick,  Rhode  Island, 
tlifforing  with  pretty  much  everybody  else,  and  sometimes  differing  with 
himself.  Gov.  Arnold,  in  his  excellent  history  of  the  State,  says  he  was 
the  "  veriest  leveller  recorded  in  history."  Tlie  libraries  of  Blackstone 
and  Newman  were  burnt  by  the  Indians ;  and  there  is  no  evidence  of 
much  written  intercourse  between  any  of  these  four  "  very  considerable 
men."  With  Gorton  he  would  not  be  likely  to  have  much  intercourse  ; 
but  as  there  is  no  written  evidence  to  the  contrary,  and  as  the  other 
three  were  educated,  men,  and  were  also  men  of  enlarged  and  liberal 
views  for  those  times,  there  is  no  doubt  of  there  having  been  much  more 
familiarity  and  christian  courtesy  between  them  than  is  warranted  by  the 
remark  of  Dr.  Stiles.  About  the  recovery  of  Newman's  MSS.,  as 
alluded  to  l)y  ]Mr.  Hyde,  I  have  made  pretty  diligent  research,  and  the 
result  is  that  there  were  none  to  recover ; — the  conflagration  at  Reho- 
both,  March  28, 1676,  by  the  Indians,  seems  to  have  settled  that  matter. 

The  fragment  of  his  papers  containing  the  thirteen  articles  of  his  pri- 
vate platform  [on  page  23]  first  appeared  in  print  in  Mather's  Magnalia, 
and  was  doubtless  preserved  through  a  copy  permitted  to  be  taken  ])y 
some  friend  during  its  author's  life  time,  and  which  afterwards  fell  into 
Mather's  hands.  The  Latin  epitaph  on  page  33,  of  which  I  have  made 
a  rather  free  translation,  was  also  written  by  Dr.  Cotton  Mather,  and  is 
in  his  Magnalia.  And  here  I  desire  to  record  my  owa  impressions  of 
Mather  and  his  works,  without  prejudice,  and  without  any  desire  to 
compromise  the  opinions  of  anybody  else.  Dr.  Cotton  JMather  was  a 
very  learned  man — a  very  pious  man — a  very  talented  man — a  very 
good  man,  and  an  able  theologian  and  preacher  of  the  gospel,  according 
to  the  standard  of  his  times.     But  his  mind  was  of  that  imaginative  cast 


APPENDANT     NOTES.  57 

which,  without  a  rigid  control,  reiulcred  him  an  unsafe  historian  and 
biographer.  He  would  hastily  grasp,  as  with  the  liantl  of  a  great  mas- 
ter, the  appearances  that  evidently  clustered  around  a  ta<^t,  and  educe 
from  them  his  supposed  reality,  without  delving  for  the  truth  itself. 
He  was  inattentive  to  those  small  but  important  items — those  minutice 
in  dates,  places  and  delicate  colorings  of  events,  which  are  the  rubble- 
stones  which  nmst  ever  support  the  foundations  of  the  stinicture  of  true 
history.  His  historic  writings  [especially  his  Magnalia]  are  such  as  we 
should  hardly  know  how  to  do  without,  and  yet  such  as  we  constantly 
feel  that  we  dare  not  im^jlicitly  tnist.  The  fact  that  the  Magnalia, 
though  professedly  an  English  book,  is  continually  assaulted  with  hail- 
storms of  Latin,  was  not  peculiarly  a  fault  of  his — it  was  a  fault  in  the 
taste  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived ;  and  with  all  these  faults,  and  much 
trouble  as  he  has  caused  in  leading  subsequent  writers  astray,  lie  will 
ever  be  entitled  to  the  gratitude  of  his  countiymen,  and  to  an  honorable 
place  in  the  theologic  and  historic  literature  of  America. 

At  the  close  of  this  long  note — the  last  on  the  founder  of  Eehoboth — 
perhaps  it  may  be  a  convenience  to  some  of  my  readers  to  refer  them  to 
the  principal  wi'iters  who  have  referred  to,  or  more  or  less  spoken  of, 
Rev.  Samuel  Newman. 

[Wood's  Athen.  et  Fast.  Oxon.,  London.  jMather's  Magnalia.  Holmes's  Am. 
Annals,  Vol.  I.,  p.  332,  333.  President  Stiles's  Literary  Diary.  Coll.  Mass.  Hist. 
Soc,  Vol.  IX.,  p.  191,  First  Series.  ]\Iorton's  Memorial;  edited  by  Judge  Davis. 
Allen's  Biog.  and  Hist.  Die.  Elliott's  Biog.  Die.  Bliss's  Hist.  Eehob.  Farmer's 
Register;  First  Settlers  of  New  England.  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  New  Series,  Vol.  VH  , 
p.  187.  Baylies'  Plym.  Colony,  Vol.  1.,  p.  316;  Vol.  H.,  p.  196,  209,  211.  John- 
son's Wonder  Work.  Prov.,  Chap.  X.,  p.  127.  Preface  to  Cruden's  Concordance. 
Preface  to  Newman's  Concordance,  Third  Edition  of  1658,  by  Dr.  Featly  and  Rev. 
William  Gouge.  Neal's  Hist.  Puritans,  Vol.  H.,  p.  315.  Neul's  Hist.  New  England, 
Vol.  n.,  p.  341.  Young's  Chronicles  Mass.  History  of  Dorchester.  History  of 
Weymouth.  Rec.  Banbury,  Eng.  Rec.  Oxford  Univ.,  Eng.  Rec.  Midhope  Chap., 
Yorkshire,  Eng. ;  &c.,  &c.  ]\Iany  of  these  contain  eri'ors  in  dates,  &c.,  copied  from 
one  to  another,  originally  started  wrong  by  Cotton  Mather;  but  some  of  them  have 
been  carefully  corrected  by  the  accurate  researches  made  while  in  England  by  the 
Hon.  James  Savage  of  Boston,  to  whom,  for  many  favors,  I  have  long  been  under 
lasting  obligations.] 

[Note  I.— Page  37.] 
On  opening  the  grave  of  Roger  Williams,  in  the  spring  of  18G0,  no 
remains  were  found  except  a  good  representation  of  his  skeleton  formed 
of  the  roots  of  an  apple  tree.  The  root  had  stretched  itself  some  dis- 
tance to  reach  the  grave,  in  search  of  the  elements  of  its  own  subsist- 
ence, such  as  the  phosphate  of  lime,  into  which  the  bones  had  resolved 


58  APPENDANT     NOTES. 

themselves,  in  the  exact  shape  in  which  they  were  originally  l)uric(l. 
And  as  the  root  consumed  the  remains,  it  assumed  the  appearance  of  a 
human  skeleton  made  of  apple  tree  root.  Wiian  some  one  present  en- 
quired why  there  were  no  other  remains,  the  reply  was  that  the  owner 
of  the  orchard  had  been  eating  him  up  in  the  form  of  apples.  [See  a 
very  able  paper  on  this  matter,  read  before  the  llhode  Island  Historical 
Society,  May  18,  ISGO,  ])y  Hon.  Zuchariah  Allen,  L.  L.  D.,  in  which 
this  curious J)ut  rational  development  of  some  of  Nature's  recondite  laws, 
is  philosophically  and  eloquently  illustrated. 

[Note  J.— Page  38.] 
Would  it  not  be  an  act  of  justice,  as  well  as  an  act  of  credit,  to  the 
now  populous  and  wealthy  city  of  New  York — the  first  commercial  city 
on  this  Continent — to  erect  a  plain,  simple  but  substantial  memorial 
over  this  lonely  grave  of  their  very  worthy  first  mayor  ? 

[Note  K.— Page  40.] 
For  many  of  the  statistics  in  these  passages,  I  am  indebted  to  Bliss's 
history,  from  which  I  have  condensed  them.  The  author  of  that  valua- 
])le  history  of  the  town,  though  led  astray  in  some  matters  as  to  dates, 
&c.,  by  earlier  writers,  should  long  be  held  in  grateful  remembrance. 
With  the  then  scanty  and  widely  scattered  materials,  he  performed  a 
service  for  his  native  town  which  can  never  be  over-estimated ;  and  if 
he  were  living  now,  and  could  be  benefited  thereby,  I  should  rejoice  in 
an  opportunity  here  to  say  more ; — uonor  and  peace  to  nis  memory. 

[Note  L.— Page  41.] 

The  following  is  a  verbatim  copy  of  the  original  platform  of  govern- 
ment at  Plymouth.     [See  Gov.  Bradford's  Plymouth  Plantation,  p.  89. 

In  y"  name  of  God,  Amen.  We  whose  names  are  under-writen,  the 
loyall  subjects  of  our  dread  soveraigne  Lord,  King  James,  by  y"  grace 
of  God,  of  Great  Britaine,  Franc,  &  Ireland  king,  defender  of  y*  faith, 
&c.,  haveing  imdertaken,  for  y"  glorie  of  God,  and  advancemente  of  y" 
Christian  faith,  and  honour  of  our  king  &  countrie,  a  voyage  to  plant 
y*  first  colonic  in  y"*  Northerne  parts  of  Virginia,*  doe  by  these  presents 
solemnly  &  mutualy  in  y*  presence  of  God,  and  one  of  another,  covenant 

*The  term  Virginia,  in  the  compact  above,  was  the  name  used  before  that  of 
New  England.  The  farewell  sermon  of  John  Robinson,  their  pastor,  in  Leyden, 
alluded  to  in  the  passage  to  which  this  is  a  note,  may  be  found  in  the  Fii-st  Volume 


APPENDANT     NOTES. 


&  combine  our  selves  togcatlier  into  a  civill  body  politick,  for  our  better 
ordering  &  preservation  &  furtherance  of  y"  ends  aforesaid ;  and  by 
vertue  hearof  to  enacte,  constitute,  and  frame  such  just  Sf  equall  lawes, 
ordinances,  acts,  constitutions,  8f  offices,  from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be 
thought  most  ineete  Sf  convenient  for  y*"  (/etieraU  good  of  if  Colonic, 
unto  which  toe  promise  all  due  submissioti  and  obedience.  In  witness 
wherof  we  have  hereunder  subscribed  our  names  at  Cap-Codd  y"  11.  of 
November,  in  y''  year  of  y''  raigne  of  our  soveraigne  lord,  King  James, 
of  England,  France,  &  Ireland  y"  eighteenth,  and  of  Scotland  y"  fiftie 
fourth.     Au°:  Dom.  1620. 

Miles  Standish, 

Isaac  AUerton, 

Samuel  Fuller, 

Jolm  Alden, 

*  Christopher  Martm, 
*William  Mullms, 
Stephen  Hopkuis, 
Edward  Dotey, 
Edward  Leister, 
Francis  Cooke, 
*Thomas  Rogers, 
*John  Ridgdale, 
*John  Turner, 
*James  Chilton, 
John  Billington, 
John  Goodman, 
*Thomas  Williams, 

*  Edward  Margeson, 
*Richard  Britterige, 
Edward  Gardiner, 
*John  Carver, 

Those  marked  with  a  star  thus  *  died  the  first  year.  The  first  person 
who  stepped  upon  the  landing  rock,  at  the  general  disembarkation,  was 
Mary,  the  daughter  of  James  Chilton,  who  afterwards  married  Jolm 
Winslow,  son  of  Edward.  John  Billington  was  [ten  years  aftei-j  hung 
for  murder,  but  left  respectable  descendants. 


William  Bradford, 
Edward  Winslow, 
Wilham  Brewster, 
John  Howland, 
George  Soule, 
*Williara  White, 
Richard  Warren, 
*Edward  TiUey, 
*John  Tilley, 
*Thomas  Tmker, 
*Edward  Fuller, 
Francis  Eaton, 
*John  Crackston, 
*Moses  Fletcher, 
*Degory  Priest, 
Gilbert  Winslow, 
Peter  Brown, 
*Richard  Clarke, 
*John  Allerton, 
*Thomas  English. 


of  Mather's  Magnalia.     [The  italicizing  is  not  in  the  original  of  the  compact,  but  I 
bave  marked  those  words  on  which  I  based  my  remarks  in  the  Oration.] 


60  A  H  1M:  N  1)  A  N  T     N  0  T  E  3  . 

[Note  M. — Page  45.] 
For  a  further  illustration  of  this  coinao;e,  see  Historical  Magazine, 
Vol.  III.,  p.  197,  and  Thomas  IloUis's  Memoirs,  p.  897.  A  rather 
captious  reply  to  the  above  article  in  the  Magazine,  appears  in  the  same 
volume,  p.  316,  but  the  ar<i;ument  used  is  a  felo  de  se.  I  have  a  good 
and  well  preserved  specimen  of  this  coin,  and  nobody  acquainted  with  the 
first  limb  or  twig  of  "  treeology  "  would  ever  dream  of  its  being  a  pine, 


CONCLUDING  NOTE.— [Peksonal.] 
I  here  embrace  an  opportunity  to  try  to  coirect  some  wide  spread 
mistakes.  In  the  course  of  my  genealogical  labors,  I  receive  many 
letters  addressing  me  by  the  title  of  liev.  How  this  practice  came  into 
use  I  do  not  know ;  but  as  my  name  is  sometimes  alluded  to  by  my 
friends  in  the  public  journals,  I  suppose  the  mistake  was  made  by  some 
one  inadvertently  associating  my  name  with  that  of  Rev.  Samuel  New- 
man, the  founder  of  Eohoboth,  and  from  whom  I  am  a  lineal  descendant. 
Nor  have  I  any  veiy  high  opinion  of  the  application  of  the  sacred  title 
of  reverend  to  men.  My  only  apology  for  using  the  term  in  reference 
to  others,  is  in  deference  to  a  long  standing  customj  rendering  it  almost 
a  necessity  in  definite  description.  The  term  reverend  is  used  but  once 
in  the  Bible,  [Psalms  cxi.,  9,]  and  there  it  is  applied  to  the  Supreme 
Being,  alone  !  Do  we  rob  God  ?  or  do  we  claim  an  equality  with  Him  ? 
one  or  the  other  seems  inevitable.  I  have  not,  nor  never  had,  any  claim 
to  such  title.  Nor  is  my  name  Samuel — a  name  by  which  I  am  often 
addressed.  The  name  my  sainted  mother  gave  me  is  on  the  title-page  of 
this  humble  production,  and  has  never  been  altered ;  and  any  additions 
or  appendages  thereto,  have  been  made  by  the  voluntary,  unsolicited  acts 
of  others. 

In  very  early  life  I  was  left  an  orphan,  and  without  education,  prop- 
erty or  friends  to  help  me  to  instruction.  I  had  an  early  proclivity  for 
little  books,  which  gradually  extended  itself  for  larger  ones ;  but  the 
calls  of  life  could  only  be  answered  by  daily  manual  labor,  and  all  book 
progress  was  necessarily  slow,  fettered  and  limited,  although  the  hours 
which  Nature  demands  for  sleep  have  been  too  often  encroached  upon 
throughout  the  past  half  century.  For  whatever  of  Science,  Philo.sophy, 
History,  Literature,  or  attamments  in  any  of  the  departments  of  human 
learning,  I  may  possess,  (and  I  am  often  credited  with  much  more  than 


APPENDANT     NOTES.  'jl 

I  merit,)  I  am  iii(l('l)teil  only  to  the  blessing  of  Heaven  and  tin;  ooniimtn 
kindness  and  sympathy  of  my  fellow  men,  as  I  have  lived  thus  far  in 
life  wltliout  a  teacher.  I  am  a  graduate  of  no  school  cxce[)t  a  s-mall 
childrens'  school  taught  by  my  mother ;  yet,  for  reasons  best  known  to 
herself  Brown  University  saw  fit  to  pick  me  up  as  a  sort  of  isolated 
sheep  from  the  more  favored  flock,  and  generously  conferred  upon  me 
one  of  her  Honorary  Degrees. 

In  religious  matters,  I  am  an  outsider  to  every  variety  and  shade  of 
religious  organization ;  yet  I  am  no  infidel,  nor  am  I  a  disrespectful  or 
inattentive  observer  and  listener  at  religious  meetings.  In  none  of  my 
by-gone  editorial  writings,  in  no  book,  pamphlet,  letter  or  document 
written  by  me  throughout  my  past  life,  have  I  ever  left  a  single  word 
that  could  be  construed  into  any  disrespect  or  want  of  veneration  for  the 
christian  religion  or  for  God,  whether  I  see  him  revealed  in  the  Scrip- 
tures or  geometrizing  in  the  rainbow ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  I  respect, 
admire  and  love,  with  what  I  believe  to  be  a  christian  impulse,  all  I  see 
praiseworthy,  pure  and  good  in  all  men,  with  no  desire  to  take  note  of  their 
faults.  My  worship  is  summed  up  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  my  creed 
is  reducible  to  eight  small  words  :  "  Cease  to  do  evil ;  learn  to  do  well." 

In  earlier  life,  the  physical  sciences  and  mOral  and  intellectual  philoso- 
phy, were  among  my  most  congenial  pastimes ;  but,  in  later  years,  anti- 
quarian and  genealogic  investigations  are  my  favorite  pursuits ;  and  I 
have  many  thousand  families  of  the  present  and  past,  in  systematic 
an-angement, — a  vast  collection,  which  is  designed  as  a  deposit  in  the 
archives  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  for  the  benefit  of  the  future. 

I  am  aware  that  it  is  not  commendable  for  one  to  say  or  write  much 
of  hunself;  but  if  I  had  died  yesterday,  and  my  labors  and  papers  ever 
been  deemed  worth  overhauling,  not  a  paragraph  of  autobiography  would 
have  ever  been  found  among  them.  Under  these  circumstances,  and  to 
correct  the  mistakes  alluded  to,  perhaps  I  may  be  excusably  indulged  in 
this  brief  exposition.  And  I  only  here  desire  to  add,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  youth  and  young  men  of  this  favored  age,  that  although  the  most 
protracted  life  of  man  is  but  a  moment  in  the  great  cycle  of  Time,  yet, 
independent  of  all  the  legitimate  calls  of  life,  there  is  a  large  amount  of 
surplus  time  that  may  and  must  be  devoted  to  something  ; — what  that 
something  is,  their  future  destiny  will  faithfully  illustrate  and  develope. 
Adeo  in  teneris  consuescere  multum  est.     Vir. 


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rULL  AND  COMPLETE  RErOllT 

OF  niB 

ECCLESIASTIC    AND    CIVIC 

BI-CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 

AT   SEEKONK,  [the  Ancient  Rehoboth,] 

JULY   4,    1860. 


frKKI'AKEU    AT  THE   REQUEST   OF   THE    COMJIITTEl 


HISTORICAL   CELEBRATION. 


In  the  month  of  May,  1860,  a  meeting  of  the  Congregational 
Church  at  Seekonk  was  holden  to  take  into  consideration  the 
subject  of  projecting  some  sort  of  a  celebration  of  the  ancient 
settlement  of  that  town  and  church. 

A  Committee  of  Arrangements  were  chosen,  and  the  whole 
matter  placed  in  their  hands, — the  Committee  requesting  their 
pastor.  Rev.  Mr.  Barney,  to  sit  with  their  body  as  an  advisatory 
member.  After  extending  invitations  to  such  as  they  desired 
to  take, part  in  the  exercises,  and  receiving  their  replies,  the 
Committee  issued  the  following  public  noticcf  as  a  programme  of 
their  intended  celebration : 

ECCLESIASTIC   AND    CIVIC   CELEBRATION, 

AT    SEEKONK,    JI  A  S  S . 


It  has  been  proposed  that  the  Pieligious  Societies  and  the  Citizens  of 
Seekonk  and  the  seven  towns  of  which  the  ancient  Rehoboth  has  been 
the  nursing  MoLher,  should  hold  a  friendly,  religious  and  patriotic  gath- 
ering at  the  orig'nal  Congregational  Church  thereof,  at  Skeko.nk, 
on  July  4th,  iS.jO,  at  10,  a.  m.,  for  the  purpose  of  commemorating  the 
orlg"n  and  historic  scenes  of  the  ancient  Il3hoboth,  [now  Sjekonk],  and 
of  passing  in  review  the  life  and  character  of  its  orig'nal  foun.ler.  and  of 
paying  re3p38t  to  th3  ever  m3mai'able  birth-day  of  our  Co.mmdn  Country. 

That  this  gathering  may  be  simple  and  unostentatious,  and  yet  befit- 
ting a  religious  and  patriotic  people,  the  following  brief  Programme  has 
10 


74  THE     CELEBRATION. 

been  adopted,  excluding  powder  and  otlicr  emblems  of  War.  while  at 
sunrise  and  sunset  the  peals  from  tlie  Church  Bells  will  "  ring  out " 
their  respects  for  the  National  Anniversary. 


ORDER    OF    EXERCISES. 

I. 

Invocation  to  the  Tlirone  of  Gx-ace  by  Rev.  Constantine  Blodgett,  D.  D., 
Pastor  of  tlie  Congregational  Church  of  Pawtuckct. 

II. 

Reading  of  select  portions  of  Scripture  by  Rev.  A.  H.  Stowell,  Pastor 

of  the  First  Baptist  Church  at  Seekonk. 

III. 
Music  and  Hymn  by  the  Choir. 

IV. 

Prayer  by  Rev.  James  0.  Barney,  present  and  tenth  Pastor  of  this  the 
original  Church,  and  who  will  also  conduct  the  exercises. 

v. 

Reading  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  by  Hon.  Johnson  Gardner, 

a  native  of  the  town,  and  descendant  of  one  of  its  early  settlers. 

VI. 

National  Ode  by  the  Choir. 

VII. 

Historical  Oration  by  S.  C.  Newman,  A.  M.,  of  Pawtucket,  a  native  of 

the  ancient  Rehoboth,  and  lineal  descendant  in  the  seventh 

generation  from  its  founder  and  first  Pastor. 

VIII. 

Original  Hymn  written  for  the  occasion. 

IX. 

Remarks  and  Benediction  by  Rev.  David  Benedict,  D.  D.,  of  Pawtucket. 


At  the  close  of  the  services,  the  company  will  repair  to  a  temporary 
Pavilion  near  the  Church,  where  [at  a  moderate  price]  all  who  desire  it 


THE     CELEBRATION.  75 

can  join  the  festive  board  and  partake  of  refresliraent  and  the  enjoyment 
of  enlightened  sociality  ;  and  all  who  have  a  taste  for  this  class  of  historic 
gatherings,  without  distinction  of  party,  creed,  sect  or  sex,  and  especially 
those  descendants  in  neighboring  Spates,  the  ashes  of  wiiose  ancestral 
forefiithers  repose  in  the  ancient  Cemetery  connected  with  this  venerable 
Church,  are  hereby  invited  to  mingle  in  these  sacred  and  patriotic 
festivities. 


JOSEPH  BROWN, 
ROBERT  M.  PEARSE, 
JOSEPH  B.  FITTS, 
ISAIAH  HOYT, 
WILLIAM  ELLIS, 


Committee  of 
Arrano-ements. 


Note. — Several  interesting  antiquated  relics  of  this  people,  more  than  two  cen- 
turies ago,  will  be  exhibited  on  this  occasion. 

With  this  announcement,  printed  in  circulars  with  correspond- 
ing envelopes  for  convenience,  and  in  the  newspapers  in  the  vi- 
cinity, the  Committee  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  their  duties 
with  intelligence,  ability  and  energy ;  and  their  success  will  be 
best  told  in  the  following  account  of  the  result,  compiled  prin- 
cipally from  reporters  of  the  press,  (for  whom  the  Committee 
furnished  special  accommodations,  both  in  the  church  and  at  the 
dinner,)  commencing  with  the  remarks  of  the  very  able  reporter 
[E.  R.  Gardiner]  of  the  Providence  Evening  Press,  issued  on 
the  afternoon  of  July  5.* 

While  our  Providence  streets  were  the  scene  of  the  din  and 
discomfort  inseparable  from  a  city  celebration  of  the  Fourth,  it 
was  a  pleasant  fortune  to  escape  from  them  and  participate  in  a 
more  quiet  and  more  pleasurable  mode  of  paying  respect  to  the 
national  anniversary  provided  in  a  rural  suburb.  The  broad  and 
grassy  plateau  of  Seekonk,  venerable  with  historic  interest ;  its 
ancient  church  and  cemetery,  containing  monuments  that  now 


♦Justice  requires  us  to  say  that  the  several  journals  there  represented,  viz :  the 
Pawtucket  Gazette  and  Chronicle,  Pawtucket  Observer,  Providence  Post  and  Press, 
Boston  Journal,  and  some  others,  all  published  able  but  more  or  less  condensed 
reports;  and  in  this  description  we  have  drawn  more  or  less  from  them  all,  with- 
out being  able  to  credit  theui  in  detail. 


78  TUB      CELEBRATION. 

shovr  the  date  of  1G.33 ;  its  romnntic  loveliness  of  seenorv,  its 
neat  dwellin^^,  its  gay  pavilion  and  its  happy  group  of  people, 
from  distant  towns  and  States,  returning  to  do  honor  to  tiie 
founders  and  the  historic  scenes  of  their  ancient  birth-place, 
presented  a  spectacle  long  to  be  remembered  by  those  who  wit- 
nessed it  as  it  yesterday  thus  appeared.  Never  was  more  ap- 
propriate place  or  occasion  for  such  re-union,  and  never  were 
the  details  of  a  memorial  meeting  better  planned  or  more  suc- 
cessfully carried  out.  In  the  judicious  selection  of  speakers  and 
the  felicitous  manner  in  which  they  performed  their  duties ;  in 
the  well-timed  sentiments  and  the  excellent  and  abundant  cheer 
that  was  provided  ;  in  the  numbers  and  the  enthusiasm  of  iho 
participants  ;  in  the  feeling  of  deep  reverence  for  the  past  exci- 
ted, and  in  the  loveliness  of  the  day,  all  was  a  complete  success. 
Such  interesting  festivities  have  perhaps  never  before  been  known 
in  Seekonk ;  never  probably  were  its  bright  fields  and  pleasant 
drives  so  well  and  so  extensively  appreciated  as  yesterday.  The 
deeds  of  the  men  associated  with  these  scenes  in  early  days  were 
vividly  brought  up  in  review  before  their  descendants  who  had 
assembled  from  the  seven  towns  of  which  the  ancient  Rehoboth 
has  been  the  nursing  mother,  to  commemorate  the  fame  of  a  no- 
ble ancestry.  A  deep  impression  pervaded  all  that  they  were 
indeed  standing  on  classic  ground,  and  they  united  as  those  who 
might  never  meet  again  in  paying  tribute  to  the  virtues  and 
exploits  of  their  fathers  as  exhibited  on  that  soil  two  hundred 
years  ago. 

At  an  early  hour,  crowds  of  people  began  to  gather  from  the 
neighboring  towns  and  villages,  and  although  the  railway  station 
•was  near  the  location, — putting  the  place  in  connection  with  the 
surrounding  country, — yet  there  were  visible  at  one  time,  eight 
hundred  and  five  family  carriages  on  that  broad  plateau.  It 
was  by  far  the  largest  gathering  ever  witnessed  there  since  the 
settlement  of  the  town ;  yet  such  was  the  admirable  arrange- 
ments of  the  Committee,  that  not  a  gun,  nor  even  a  single  pow- 
der-cracker, was  fired,  nor  the  least  appearance  of  intoxicating 
Uquors  or  unbecoming  behavior  witnessed  throughout  the  day, 


THE      CELEBRATION. 


77 


in  all  that  sober,  reflective,  contemplative  and  yet  eminently 
clieerful  multitude. 

The  first  part  of  the  exercises,  those  announced  in  the  pro- 
gramme, was  held  in  the  Con,:fregational  Church  ;  and  at  10 
o'clock,  A.  i\[.,  the  appointed  time,  the  venerable  edifice  was 
filled  to  overflowing.  The  invocation  for  Divine  assistance  was 
bj  Rev.  CoxsTAXTiNE  Blodgett,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  the  Congre- 
gational Church  at  Pawtucket.  The  reading  of  select  portions 
of  Scripture  was  bj'  Rev.  A.  H.  Stowell,  Pastor  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church  at  Seekonk,  and  were  appropriate  selections  read 
from  a  Bible  prnted  at  Geneva  in  1608,  and  brought  by  Gov. 
Bradford  in  the  Mayflower  in  1620,  now  two  hundred  and  fifty- 
two  years  old.  A  fervent  and  very  appropriate  general  prayer 
was  offered  by  Rev.  James  0.  Barney,  the  tenth  and  present 
Pastor  of  this  ancient  church,  who  also  conducted  all  the  exer- 
cises in  these  services  by  introducing  the  different  participants 
at  the  proper  time  and  place.  The  Declaration  of  American 
Independence  of  July  4,  1776,  was  read  in  good  style  by  Hon. 
Johnson  Gardner,  now  of  Pawtucket,  but  a  native  of  Rehoboth. 
The  Oration  of  the  day  was  delivered  by  S.  C.  Newman,  A.  M., 
of  Pawtucket.  It  occupied  about  two  hours  in  its  delivery,  but 
•was  of  sufficient  interest  to  command  the  closest  attention  of  the 
audience  throughout.  The  Oration  was  both  ecclesiastic  and 
civic,  according  to  the  programme,  and  the  audience  gave  evi- 
dence that  the  orator  of  the  day  had  acceptably  performed  the 
task  assigned  him. 

The  following  original  hymn  written  for  the  occasion  by  Rev. 
William  M.  Thayer,  of  Franklin,  Mass.,  was  sung  after  the 
conclusion  of  the  Oration  : 


What  %-oice.s  from  the  silent  past, 

In  whispers  clear  ami  lijw, 
That  tell  <if  precious  .seed  broad  cast, 

Two  kuudied  years  ago  ! 

When  first  the  Saviour's  herald  true 
Came  o'er  the  ocean  wave. 

Here  lo  erect  an  altar  new, 
And  here  to  Cud  a  grave. 

Tlirice  blessed  they — the  fathers  all — 
Who  suffered,  toiled  and  prayed, 

And  at  the  Master's  early  call. 
These  sure  foundations  laid  ! 


Tlirice  happy  we — their  children  hcre- 
Who  share  their  labors  now, 

And  worship  God  with  hope — nor  fear 
Where  first  they  made  their  vow  1 

Lons:  where  the  sainted  fathers  trod, 
May  we  ^uard  well  the  dust 

Of  him  who  taught  in  faith  fur  God  t 
A  dear  and  sacred  trust. 

And  when  in  turn  our  lives  arc  spent, 
And  tear  drops  o'er  us  Bow, 

May  we  a.scend  where  Nkw.man  went, 
Tw"  hundred  years  mjo. 


78  THE     CELEBRATION. 

Spirited  and  tasteful  music  was  set  to  these  hymns  by  Dea. 
D.  B.  FiTTS,  formerly  of  Seekonk,  bat  now  organist  at  the  Con- 
gregational Church  in  Ilolliston,  Mass.,  who  also  wrote  an  origi- 
nal piece  of  music  for  the  original  hymn  on  this  occasion ;  and 
the  singing  was  beautifully  executed  by  a  choir  of  twenty-five 
well  trained  voices,  [Dea.  Fitts  presiding  at  the  organ,]  the 
whole  being  under  the  direction  of  Daniel  Perrin,  Esq.,  of 
Seekonk,  a  gentleman  who  exhibited  ample  qualifications  for  the 
task  he  was  called  to  sustain. 

Rev.  David  Benedict,  D.  D.,  of  Pawtucket,  to  whom  had 
been  assigned  the  Benediction,  prefaced  that  service  with  the 
following  brief  but  appropriate  remarks : 

"  I  am  always  pleased  with  such  anniversarifs  as  this.  I  like  these  re- 
unions of  the  widely  dispersed  members  of  a  town.  I  like  these  efforts  to 
preserve  the  ancestral  association  of  this,  the  ancient  town  of  Rehoboth, 
including  w'hat  are  now  seven  towns  within  a  territory  of  ten  miles  square 
purchased  of  the  great  Massasoit,  the  friend  of  Roger  Williams.  It  has  been 
the  nursery  of  piety  and  intelligence,  fruitful  in  talent  and  worthy  in  its 
moral  character.  A  day  like  this — so  fruitful  in  honorable  and  christian 
development — will,  I  trust  and  believe,  remain  among  our  most  cherished 
recollections  to  the  end  of  life.  And  now,  may  that  overruling  Heavenly 
Protector,  who  has  guided  the  barque  of  our  forefathers  over  the  stormy  seas 
of  their  probationary  trials,  and  conducted  them,  as  we  believe,  to  the  man- 
sions of  eternal  rest,  be  still  our  Protector  to  the  end  of  life,  and  to  the  same 
final  triumph,  through  His  Son,  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,     ylmen." 

These  services  in  the  church  were  of  a  most  interesting  char- 
acter, and  were  listened  to  with  uninterrupted  attention  by  an 
audience  of  twelve  hundred  people,  including  a  very  large  num- 
ber of  men  of  mark  in  the  literary,  theological  and  political  world. 
And  every  part  of  these  historic  and  patriotic  exercises  was,  by 
the  visibly  apparent  smiles  of  Heaven,  executed  in  exact  accord- 
ance with  the  original  programme  of  the  Committee,  and  evinced 
their  ability  in  all  their  arrangements. 

the  dinner. 

A  largo  and  beautiful  pavilion,  providing  dining  accommoda- 
tions for  more  than  a  thousand  people,  had  been  erected  near 
the  church,  to  which  the  congregation  next  betook  themselves 


THE     CELEBRATION.  «9 

for  the  enjo^micnt  of  the  pleasures  of  tlie  festive  board  and  of 
enli<i;htened  sociality.  The  tables  were  most  tastefully  and  boun- 
tifully spread,  and  the  tent  proved  none  too  large  for  the  guests. 
After  the  company  were  seated,  the  Divine  blessing  was  invoked 
by  Rev.  Perez  Mason  of  Boston. 

The  dinner  was  prepared  under  the  management  of  James  M. 
Bishop,  Esq.,  of  Seekonk.  Every  seat  was  occupied ;  he  had 
enough  for  all  and  to  spare,  and  if  hundreds  had  to  wait  a  second 
table,  none  were  allowed  to  go  away  hungry,  whether  with  or 
without  one  of  his  thirty-eight  cent  tickets ;  and  such  were  his 
most  admirable  arrangements,  in  point  of  assistants,  &c.,  that 
but  one  plate  and  four  tumblers  were  broken,  among  all  his  table 
ware,  during  the  whole  process  until  everything  was  finally  re- 
turned to  its  place  ;  and  in  addition  to  order,  quietness  and  social 
comfort,  the  dinner,  in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view,  more  than  real- 
ized the  most  sanguine  expectations  of  the  Committee. 

After  the  feast  of  material  good  things  had  been  disposed  of, 
the  guests  prepared  themselves  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  intel- 
lectual part  of  the  entertainment,  consisting  of  appropriate  sen- 
timents and  responsive  speeches,  which  formed  one  of  the  most 
delightful  features  of  the  occasion.  The  President,  Rev.  James 
Dean  of  Pawtucket,  who  gracefully  presided  at  this  festal  board, 
announced  the  intellectual  feast  in  a  brief  but  eloquent  speech, 
and  closed  by  introducing  George  Owen  Willard,  Esq.,  Editor 
and  Proprietor  of  the  Pawtucket  Observer,  as  toast-master  for 
the  occasion.     The  toasts  and  responses  were  as  follows : 

The  first  sentiment  was — 

TTie  Congregational  Church  oj  Seekonh — She  this  day  welcomes  the  children  of 
the  ancient  Eehoboth  to  the  old  homestead. 

Rev.  James  0.  Barney,  the  present  pastor,  ordained  in  1824, 
responded  as  follows : 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : 

Honored,  as  I  feel  that  I  am,  to  stand  in  the  place  of  the  tenth  and 
present  pastor  of  this  ancient  and  venerable  church,  it  is  my  privilege 
and  pleasure  to  extend  to  you  her  most  cordial,  christian  salutatiou. 


80  THE      CELEBRATrOa". 

Though  years  have  passed  away  since  she  entered  upon  her  third 
century,  she  is  still  as  hale  and  healthful  as  ever,  and  this  day  reports 
herself  to  be  the  mother  of  seven  towns,  thirty-eight  churches,  and  more 
than  thirty  thousand  living  descendants. 

We,  who  are  the  immediate  members  of  her  family,  this  day  welcome 
you  all  to  the  "  Old  Homestead  ;"  the  identical  spot  wliore  our  Puritan 
fathers  and  mothers  met,  more  than  two  hundred  years  ago,  to  pray,  to 
praise  and  worship  God. 

We  meet  and  greet  you  as  brothers  and  sisters,  without  reference  to 
party  or  sect.  And  as  we  look  over  this  gi'cat  and  orderly  assembly, 
gathered  from  so  many  States,  towns  and  churches,  our  hearts  swell 
with  emotions  of  love,  and  prompt  us  to  say,  "  Behold  our  mother  and 
sisters  and  brothers." 

Gathered  as  we  are,  we  deem  it  a  fitting  occasion  to  render  thanks  to 
our  Heavenly  Father  that  we  are  the  children  of  those  pious  parents, 
who,  on  these  sacred  grounds,  off^ired  prayers  that  reached  up  to  the 
throne  and  affacted  the  heart  of  God,  and  ])rocured  for  us  the  richest 
blessings  in  His  gift. 

And  now,  dear  friends,  as  brevity  and  good  sense  are  to  be  the  order 
of  the  table,  and  as  we  know  of  nothing  that  more  fully  and  Ijriefly  ex- 
presses our  feelings  toward  you,  we  close  our  welcome  by  invoking  upon 
you  all  this  Divine  benediction  [Numbers  vi.,  24,  25,  26]:  "The 
Lord  bless  you,  and  keep  you;  the  Lord  make  his  face  shine  upon  you, 
and  be  gracious  unto  you ;  the  Lord  lift  up  his  countenance  upon  you, 
and  give  you  peace." 

The  second  sentiment  was — 

The.  Earhj  Settlers  of  New  En rjland— They  feared  God  rather  than  man. 

Rev.  Perez  Mason  of  Boston  responded  to  this  sentiment  in 
the  following  manner : 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  ayid  Gentlemen: 

^ly  father  was  Ijorn  on  this  spot,  ninety  years  ago.  When  three  years 
old,  he  was  can'ied  by  his  parents  to  Grafton,  New  Hampshire,  where 
the  country  was  so  poor  that  if  the  doctrine  be  true  that  people  re -elvc  in 
this  life  punishment  for  their  sins,  they  must  have  been  grossly  wicked  ! 
I  have  seen  the  tears  course  down  his  cheeks  as  he  told  the  tale  of  the 
poverty  and  distress  of  that  noble-hearted  band  of  men  and  women,  the 


THE      CELEBRATION.  81 

early  settlers  of  his  adopted  town.  There  they  stniggled  with  pain  and 
poverty ;  and  all  the  cradle  they  had  for  years,  was  one-half  of  a  hollow  log. 
But  they  overcame  these  obstacles,  and  a  few  of  the  family  yet  remain. 

But,  Mr.  President,  amid  it  all,  I  feel  honored,  doubly  lionored,  in 
being  permitted  to  be  present  with  you  on  this  occasion.  Here  some  of 
the  early  settlers  of  New  England  had  their  trials  and  conflicts,  but  tlioir 
unyielding  reliance  on  God  for  protection  enabled  them  to  triurapli. 
May  their  posterity  never  think  less  of  God  and  the  Bible. 

You  not  only  had  among  them,  Sir,  your  ministers,  your  physicians 
and  your  jurists,  but  you  also  had  2Joets  ;  and  well  do  I  remember  one 
of  the  efforts  of  one  of  those  rustic  bards  which  was  taught  me  by  one 
of  my  ancestors  nearly  fifty  years  ago.  The  young  man  was  burning  a 
eoal-pit  then  not  far  from  where  we  are  now  assembled,  and  going  from 
here  to  Providence,  he  purchased  a  quart  of  new  mm.  On  his  way 
back,  he  imbibed  so  freely  that  he  became  intoxicated,  and  fell  into  his 
coal-pit  and  came  near  being  burned  to  death ;  and  after  having  par- 
tially recovered,  he  perpetrated  the  following  verse,  in  which  there  is 
probably  more  truth  than  poetry : 

"  A  quart  of  rum  from  Providence  come  ; — 
And  through  that  sin,  I  plainly  see, 
The  pit  did  funk  and  I  got  drunk, 
And  that's  the  eend  of  me." 

But,  aside  from  these  simplicities,  I  rejoice  that  so  much  of  the  puri- 
tanic spirit  is  here  to-day.  Theirs  was  a  spirit  of  stern  integrity ;  and 
in  listening  to  the  Oration  to-day,  we  found  that  Rehoboth  was  on  hand 
in  the  Revolution,  to  furnish  her  quota  of  men  to  defend  the  liberties  of 
the  country. 

As  a  descendant  from  Old  Rehoboth,  I  am  glad  to  be  here.  And  I 
thank  God  that  many  of  my  ancestors  were  men  who  feared  Him  and 
kept  His  commandments.  I  feel  honored  in  the  privilege  of  mingling 
in  these  festivities,  and  in  paying  our  respects  to  this  venerable  mother 
of  seven  towns.     God  bless  her. 

The  third  sentiment  was — 

The  difficulties  encountered  and  overcome  by  the  early  settlers  of  New  England, 
though  formidable  in  their  nature,  and  apparently  well  calculated  to  discourage 
and  dishearten  the  most  sanguine,  yet  those  very  difficulties  and  obstacles  gave  a 
tone  to  the  character  of  those  early  adventurers  and  their  posterity,  that  has  made 
New  England  what  she  is. 
11 


82  TUE     CELEBRATION. 

Rev.  William  M.  Thayer  of  Franklin,  Mass.,  (avithor  of  the 
"  Bobbin  Boy,")  who  was  expected  to  respond  to  this  sentiment, 
being  absent.  Rev.  David  Bexedict,  D.  D.,  of  Paw  tucket,  re- 
sponds as  follows : 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : 

Under  the  circumstances  arising  from  the  absence  of  the  gentleman 
expected  to  respond  to  the  sentiment  here  given,  I  may  reasonably  be 
permitted  to  make  a  few  brief  remarks,  in  a  somewhat  different  direction 
from  what  I  should  if  I  had  intended  to  make  a  special  response  to  that 
comprehensive  field  of  historic  truth. 

I  am  well  pleased  with  celebrations  of  this  kind,  and  particularly  with 
the  rapidly  increasing  efibrts  which  are  now  so  generally  being  made  to 
collect  and  preserve  the  record  of  the  doings,  the  trials  and  the  .suc- 
cesses of  our  New  England  ancestors, — a  labor  which  has  been  too  nmch 
and  too  long  neglected  by  almost  all  classes  of  the  American  people. 

Although  I  cannot  trace  my  pedigree  to  the  first  settlers  of  Old  Re- 
hoboth,  and  have  no  ancestral  claims  to  a  relationship  with  that  worthy 
band  of  men,  yet  for  more  than  a  half  century  I  have  been  on  very  inti- 
mate tenns  with  a  portion  of  their  descendants.  In  1804  I  became  a 
resident  of  Pawtucket,  [on  the  Massachusetts  side  of  the  river,]  which 
was  then  within  the  limits  of  the  venerable  town  whose  bi-centennial 
anniversary  we  this  day  celebrate.  Here  I  found  a  small  but  godly 
company  of  the  members  of  this  famous  community,  who  united  with 
the  few  members  of  my  own  order  [Baptists]  in  sustaining  religious  ser- 
vices in  the  only  house  of  pubhc  worship  then  in  tliat  place.  These 
people  became  my  steady  hearers  and  supporters  until  a  church  of  their 
own  order  [Congregationalists]  arose  in  that  place, — an  offshoot  from 
this  venerable  parent  chm-ch.  "Witli  the  ministers  of  this  wide  spread 
town  and  its  vicinity,  I  frequently  exchanged  pulpits;  and  I  have 
preached  in  the  double-galleried  meeting-house  described  by  the  orator 
of  the  day.  Thus  such  an  intimacy  was  formed  with  this  people,  that  I 
do  not  come  here  as  a  stranger  on  this  joyous  and  praiseworthy  occasion. 

And  besides,  I  claim  to  be  a  representative  of  a  somewhat  numerous 
portion  of  the  population  of  this  originally  widely  extended  town,  in 
which  many  of  our  faith  have  lived  and  died ;  and  from  which,  at  differ- 
ent tunes,  no  inconsiderable  numbers  of  this  class  of  men,  [Baptists,] 
both  ministers  and  laymen,  have  performed  important  services  in  other 
regions  to  which  they  have  emigrated. 


THE     CELEBRATION.  83 

Epliraim  Starkweather,  Esq.,*  tlio  very  talented  gentleman  so  trutli- 
fuUy  alludeLl  to  iu  the  Oration  to-day,  was  the  founder  of  an  important 
and  highly  respectable  family  in  that  part  of  the  ancient  Kehohoth  now 
called  Pawtucket.  He  was  one  of  the  substantial  members  of  the  com- 
mimity  to  which  I  have  referred.  He  was  a  native  of  Connecticut  and 
a  graduate  of  Yale  College.  From  this  very  intelligent  and  worthy 
christian  citizen,  I  learned  the  leading  facts  of  the  history  of  Newman 
and  his  adventurous  associates,  and  of  the  transactions  of  those  men 
with  Massasoit,  the  famous  Indian  chief,  the  early  and  firm  fj-iend  of 
Roger  Williams, — the  great  outlines  of  those  times  I  learned  from  Mr. 
Starkweather,  long  before  the  valuable  labors  of  Daggett  and  Bliss  were 
published  to  the  world. 

I  had,  in  my  earliest  years,  formed  a  very  favorable  opinion  of  the 
Old  Plymouth  Colony,  within  whose  ancient  bomidaries  we  are  now 
assembled,  and  this  opinion  was  strengthened  and  confirmed  as  I  became 
more  and  more  acquainted  and  familiar,  in  later  life,  with  the  records 
and  character  and  christian  liberality  of  this  ancient  people. f 

With  regard  to  the  toast,  to  which  I  have  not  even  attempted  to  .re- 
spond, I  have  only  time  and  strength  to  say :  That  the  evidences  of 
"the  diflieulties  encountered  and  overcome"  by  our  forefathers,  are 
universally  spread  over  the  early  history  of  New  England ;  they  were 
the  schools  in  which  the  perseverance,  the  honor,  the  integrity  and  ulti- 
mate standard  of  liberality  of  our  far-famed  New  England  character  was 
formed — a  character  which  has  left  and  is  yet  to  leave,  and  permanently 
stamp,  its  impress  on  the  un])orn  States  yet  to  belong  to  our  o-lorioiis 
Union  of  confederated  members  of  this  great  Republic,  whose  birth  we 
this  day  also  celebrate.  Those  obstacles,  overcome  by  the  toil  of  perse- 
verance and  high-toned  trust  in  Grod,  will  long  shine  as  beacon  liglits  for 
the  stimulation  of  a  laudable  pride  of  nationality  to  the  intelligent  future. 

But,  Mr.  President,  I  must  close,  and  only  beg  leave  to  add,  that  the 
non-sectarian  character  of  this  glorious  festival  fully  appears  in  the  pro- 

*That  gentleman  has  a  grandson,  Hon.  Samuel  Starkweather,  now  living  in 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  late  one  of  the  District  Judges  of  that  State.  A  great-grandson, 
James  Oliver  Starkweather,  Esq.,  is  now  Cashier  of  the  Slater  Bank  at  Pawtucket. 

There  is  a  fact  relating  to  this  Ephraim  Starkweather  of  Rehoboth  which  is  not 
much  known  in  history,  and  it  is  this  :  Gov.  John  Hancock,  while  the  storm  of 
British  oppression  was  lowering  over  New  England,  called  to  his  side  a  board  of 
private  Councillors,  as  confidential  advisors,  and  this  Mr.  Starkweather  of  Kehohoth 
was  one  of  Hancock's  choice,  and  served  in  that  private  but  honorable  capacity. 

tSee  page  26.  s.  c.  n. 


84  THE      CELEBRATION. 

gramme  of  your  Committee,  and  their  ailmirable  execution  of  it ;  and  if 
I  were  to  offer  a  sentiment,  it  would  be  something  like  this : 

The  grave  is  the  sepulchre  of  all  human  creeds ;  and  beyond  it  will  be  the  entire 
harmony  of  all  their  pious  advocates.    Fidcli  ctrla  merces. 

The  fourth  sentiment  was — 

Tlie  Early  lUstory  of  (his  Colony— It  awakens  an  honest  pride  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people. 

Hon.  John  Daggett  of  Attleborough,  President  of  the  "  Old 
Colony  Historical  Society,"  responded  in  the  following  manner  : 

3fr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  am  happy  to  respond  to  such  a  sentiment  as  the  one  just  proposed. 
It  is  worthy  of  remembrance  on  this  occasion.  The  Plymouth  Colony — 
the  "  Old  Colony,"  as  we  familiarly  call  it — has  become  a  great  historic 
name.  It  will  fill  a  noble  page  in  history ;  and,  as  the  population  of 
this  country  flows  westward  from  the  Pilgrim  shore,  the  Old  Colony 
looms  boldly  up  to  view,  and  will  ever  be  a  prominent  object  through 
the  vista  of  the  Past.  There  is  the  old,  lowly  home  of  a  great  nation — 
there,  its  birth-place. 

The  general  character  of  the  Pilgrims  should  be  held  up  to  coming 
generations  in  everlasting  remembrance.  They  were  the  unconscious 
founders  of  a  great  Western  Empire.  As  the  vswelling  population  of 
this  country  expands  and  spreads  itself  over  a  vast  continent,  the  fame 
of  the  Pilgrims  will  go  with  it,  and  "  grow  with  its  growth  and  strengthen 
with  its  strength." 

Yes,  we  are  proud  to  claim  such  an  ancestry — to  belong  to  the  land 
of  the  Pilgrims.  You  are  natives  of  the  Old  Colony.  This  ancient 
town,  whose  birth  you  have  met  to  celebrate,  was  included  in  the  limits 
of  this  time-honored  colony.  You  are  assembled  on  sacred  ground, ^ — 
standing  on  Pilgrim  soil, — that  land  to  which  history  will  look  for  the 
foundations  of  our  institutions  and  the  germs  of  great  events. 

The  founders  of  the  Old  Colony  were  fitted  to  carry  on,  successfully, 
the  apparently  humble,  but  eventually  great  enterprise  for  which  Provi- 
dence had  designed  them.     They  were  men  of  faith  and  men  of  courage. 

They  were  men  of  genuine  faith  and  trust  in  Providi.-nce,  or  they  never 
would  have  forsaken,  as  they  did,  their  native  land  for  conscience'  sake 
— that  land  to  which  they  were  bound  by  the  ties  of  kindred  and  home. 


THE     CELEBRATION.  86 

It  was  a  trying  moment  when,  in  the  frail  jMayflower,  they,  exiles  though 
they  were,  looked  for  the  last  time,  with  eyes  bedimmed  with  tears,  on 
the  green  fields  and  white  shores  of  England — that  "  dear  old  England," 
the  home  of  their  fathers  and  the  home  of  their  own  childhood ;  they 
never  would  have  severed  those  ties  nor  quit  those  scenes  endeared  to 
them  by  so  many  associations,  to  meet  the  perils  of  a  wide  ocean  and  an 
unknown  world,  if  they  had  not  been  moved  by  a  great  moral  power, — 
with  hearts  trusting  in  Providence, — sustained  by  an  unfaltering  faith, — 
men  who  valued  conscience  above  all  other  things.  If  they  had  not  been 
of  such  a  stamp,  they  would  not  have  turned  away  from  the  comforts 
and  endearments  of  their  native  land,  to  banish  themselves  to  the  then 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  and  to  plant  their  homes  in  the  wilderness. 

They  were  also  men  of  true  courage,  or  they  never  could  have  faced 
the  dangers  and  endured  the  trials  to  which  their  situation  exposed  them 
during  the  early  periods  of  their  history.  The  public  and  private  his- 
tory of  their  lives  furnishes  decisive  evidence  of  this  fact.  There  were 
many  occasions  during  their  colonial  existence  which  "  tried  men's  souls." 
Their  readiness  to  meet  danger  and  death  in  their  most  appalling  forms 
was  fully  tested  in  the  bloody  scenes  of  Philip's  war,  which  swept  with 
such  terrible  destruction  over  the  infant  colony.  Within  our  own  limits 
was  the  scene  of  the  most  disastrous  and  hard-fought  battle  of  the  whole 
war,  in  proportion  to  the  numbers  engaged.  One  of  its  severest  blows 
fell  upon  the  settlement  around  the  very  spot  on  which  we  stand,  in  the 
destruction,  by  the  torch  of  the  enemy,  of  the  dwellings  of  the  settlers. 

You  have  all  read  the  sad  story  of  "  Pierce's  Fight;"  how  with  his 
sixty-three  English  and  twenty  Cape  Indians  he  passed  over  these  Plains 
with  his  little  army,  doomed  so  soon  to  perish  on  a  bloody  field ;  how 
on  his  passage  through  the  place  he  was  joined  by  five  of  our  townsmen, 
and  all  went  in  search  of  the  foe,  who  were  supposed  to  be  in  the  vicin- 
ity ;  how  they  courageously  attacked  the  enemy  and  pursued  them  till 
they  were  drawn  into  an  ambuscade  and  were  finally  surrounded  by  more 
than  five  times  their  own  number.  They  were  thus  completely  encom- 
passed by  the  enemy.  They  must  then  have  known  their  fate.  There 
was  no  retreat  and  no  quarter — it  was  victory  or  death  ! 

At  the  commencement  of  the  fight,  Capt.  Pierce  formed  his  men  into 
a  circle  "  double-double  distance  all  round,"  so  as  to  present  a  front  to 
the  enemy  in  every  direction.  There  and  thus  they  stood  for  nearly 
three  hours  in  these  appalling  circumstances,  till  almost  every  man  fell 
either  dead  or  wounded  !     This  was  a  test  of  their  coura<?e.     Even  the 


86  THE     CELEBRATION. 

coward,  wlion  surrounded  by  tlic  "  jKniip  and  circnnistance  of  glorious 
war,"  ins])ired  l>y  the  enlivening  strains  of  martial  music,  and  attended, 
by  numerous  hosts,  may  rush  boldly  onward  in  the  hour  of  battle,  but 
liere  our  friends  had  n(»  external  aids — nothing  to  sustain  them  but  their 
own  brave  hearts  !  Well  did  the  old  chronicler  call  this  battle-ground 
the  "  Bed  of  Honor."  Honor,  then,  to  the  memory  of  the  brave  men 
who  thus  died  in  defence  of  their  firesides  and  their  homes.  To  be  de- 
scended from  those  men  is  a  prouder  title  of  nobility  than 

"  All  the  blood  of  all  the  Howards." 

The  orator  of  the  day  has  alluded  to  some  of  the  eminent  men  that 
have  been  bom  in  Rehoboth.  Within  this  plantation  was  born  one  per- 
son who  has  presided  over  Yale  College ;  another  who  has  been  Chief 
Justice  of  our  Supreme  Court ;  Benjamin  West,  a  distinguished  Profes- 
sor in  Brown  University,  whose  name  is  co-extensive  with  astronomical 
science ;  Dr.  Nathan  Smith,  a  man  eminent  m  hterature  and  philosophy. 
All  will  remember  the  name  of  Maxey,  who  was  born  within  the  limits 
of  Rehoboth,  President  of  three  colleges,  one  of  the  most  eminent  moral 
philosophers,  and  one  of  the  most  brilliant  pulpit  orators  of  his  day. 

This  is  a  family  gathering — a  meeting  of  the  descendants  of  the  early 
inhabitants  of  Rehoboth.  Shall  we  call  the  roll  of  the  revered  dead  ? 
Did  time  permit,  it  would  be  interesting  to  read  over  the  names  on  the 
list  in  the  presence  of  their  descendants.  Some  one  here  present  could 
respond  to  almost  every  name  on  it.  Every  one  of  t'.ie  founders  of 
Rehoboth  is  probably  represented  here  to-day. 

Oh,  that  I  could,  by  some  magic  art,  or  rather,  by  some  Divine  power, 
recall  the  forefathers  of  the  town  from  their  sleep  of  two  hundred  years, 
and  restore  them,  for  a  brief  time,  to  their  earthly  homes,  and  here  let 
them  pass  in  review  before  us  in  their  antique  costumes,  with  their  Puri- 
tan manners  and  customs ;  let  them  here  meet  theii-  children  face  to  face  ; 
let  them  cast  a  new  glance  over  these  once  familiar  places  of  their  earthly 
pilgrimage ;  let  each  venerable  form,  as  he  enters  and  surveys  the  assem- 
bly, recognize  his  own  children  in  the  names  and  the  features  we  bear  ! 
What  a  strange  vision  to  them ;  how  interesting  to  us  !  And  how  changed 
the  scene  from  the  early  days  of  the  Pilgrims !  Here  is  the  Great  Plain, 
once  encircled  by  the  "  ring  of  the  town ;"  above  is  the  same  blue  sky 
and  smiling  sun ;  and  there  are  the  bright  waters  of  the  Narragansett. 
But  all  else  is  changed ;  all  other  things  have  become  new  !  The  log 
house,  the  red  Indian,  the  interminable  forests,  have  all  vanished. 


THE     CELEBRATION.  87 

Forever  honored  be  those  who,  with  bravo  hearts  and  unwavering 
faitli, — patient  to  endure  so  many  sufferings,  and  to  meet  so  many  dan- 
gers,— came  here  to  subdue  tlie  wilderness,  and  to  plant,  on  these 
beautiful  shores  of  the  Narragunsett,  the  institutions  of  Religion,  and 
Learning,  and  Freedom — that  priceless  heritage  which  you,  their  chil- 
dren, are  now  enjoying !  Tlieir  remains  repose  in  that  old  ]iurying 
Ground  within  our  sight,  and  have  long  since  returned  to  their  native 
dust ;  but  they  still  live  in  these  their  children — in  the  names  you  bear — 
in  the  example  of  their  lives ; — in  the  principles  which  they  have  trans- 
mitted to  you ;  they  still  live  in  that  influence  which  lingers  around  to 
hallow  these  scenes  of  their  earthly  pilgrimage.     Grod  bless  their  memory. 

The  fifth  sentiment  was — 

The  Clergy  of  Ancient  Rehobotli. 

Rev.  CoNSTANTiNE  Blodgett,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  the  Congre- 
gational Church  in  Pawtucket,  responded  to  this  sentiment  in 
the  following  appropriate  remarks : 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

You  can  scarcely  be  aware  of  the  task  which  you  have  assigned,  in 
your  call  upon  me.  You  have  called  me  to  retrace  thi-ough  all  the  past 
of  the  ancient  Rehoboth,  the  character  and  mfluence  of  a  succession  of 
humble,  modest  men,  who  pursued  the  "  even  tenor  of  their  way  " 
among  the  successive  generations  of  this  rural  population.  How  shall 
I  measure  the  mfluence,  how  weigh  the  moral  power,  of  these  ministers 
of  the  gospel — whom  many,  even  yet,  persist  in  regardmg  as  httle  better 
than  a  series  of  town  paupers,  for  whose  support  the  town  has  been 
chargeable  from  year  to  year  ? 

But,  Mr.  President,  there  is  a  great  law  of  social  and  moral  influ- 
ence, under  the  action  of  which  it  may  be  seen  that  the  clergy  of  this 
ancient  town  have  been  a  poioer  among  this  people,  and  have  left  a 
record,  alike  honorable  to  themselves  and  to  the  wisdom  and  grace  of 
God,  who  called  them  into  such  a  ministry.  By  office  and  position  they 
have  been  benefactors  in  many  ways,  and  to  a  degree  which  we  may 
fail  adequately  to  estimate. 

And  yet  there  are  two  lines  of  illustrative  argument  by  which  we  may 
make,  in  a  measui-e,  obvious  and  appreciable  the  benign  influence  of  the 
men  who  have  filled  the  place  of  ministers  of  religion  among  this  people. 


88  THE      CELEBHATIO.X. 

One  line  of  such  argument  is,  to  suppose  that  from  the  heginiilng 
there  hail  been  no  such  class  of  men  in  the  town  of  llchohoth.  Sup- 
pose there  had  never  been  a  Sabbath  observed,  a  sanctuary  erected,  a 
sermon  preached,  a  prayer  offered  in  public  assemblies  of  worship,  at 
marriages  or  at  burials.  What  kind  of  a  town  would  this  have  become  ? 
What  had  been  the  character  of  the  people  V  What  the  state  of  educa- 
tion ?  What  the  progress  in  learning,  arts,  sciences,  and  all  the  amenities 
and  adornments  of  a  christian  civilization  ?  What  would  have  been  from 
year  "to  year  the  value  of  real  estate  in  the  towns  into  which  the  ancient 
Rehoboth  has  been  partitioned  ?  What  would  be  the  value  of  real  estate 
this  day  under  such  a  regimen  ?  We  instinctively  close  our  eyes  on  the 
gloomy  reality.  We  dare  not  picture  to  ourselves  the  results  of  such 
an  experiment  in  civil,  social,  moral  and  rehgious  training.  Ye  minis- 
ters of  the  altar  of  God !  we  honor  your  memory ;  we  embalm  in  our 
grateful  hearts  your  holy  lives  and  your  manifoM  works  of  love  for  the 
blessing  of  your  own  generation  and  the  generations  following  !  Blessed 
are  ye,  and  blessed  &hall  ye  be  among  men, — to  the  praise  of  the  glory 
of  Divine  grace ! 

The  other  line  of  illustration  is  this.  Let  every  minister  of  religion 
be  this  day  banished  from  all  these  goodly  municipalities  into  which 
ancient  Rehoboth  has  grown.  Lot  every  meeting-house  be  demolished, 
and  a  solemn  and  perpetual  covenant  be  enacted  that  there  never  shall 
be  another  minister  of  religion,  another  sanctuary,  another  sermon,  an- 
other public  or  social  prayer,  in  all  future  years.  What  would  be  the 
effect  of  such  a  measure  upon  the  present  condition  and  the  future  pros- 
pects of  this  population?  What  would  become  of  our  moral,  benevolent, 
religious,  social  and  educational  institutions?  How  would  fare  our  in- 
dustrial pursuits  ?  What  would  be  the  effect  from  year  to  year  on  the 
value  of  these  farms  and  goodly  homesteads,  where  the  fathers  dwelt 
and  prospered  and  worshiped  in  their  day  ?  How  would  the  grand  list 
of  the  towns  stand  from  one  decade  of  years  to  another  ? 

Think  out  the  true  answer  to  such  questions,  and  you  will  agree  with 
me  in  the  conclusion  that  we  owe  an  immense  debt  of  gratitude  to  the 
clergy  of  Rehoboth,  and  to  that  God  who  appointed  them  to  such 
ministry. 

But  who  shall  attempt  to  measure  the  magnitude  of  the  results  which 
they  achieved,  when  we  rise  to  a  view  of  the  influence  which  they  have 
exerted  on  the  spiritual  and  immortal  interests  of  those  who  have  lived 
and  died  under  tlieir  ministrations,  and  been  sharers  in  the  priceless 


THE     CELEBRATION.  80 

benefits  which  they  wore  onabled  to  bestow  on  their  contemporaries,  and 
through  them,  on  atler  generations  ? 

On  tlie  l)road  fields  of  eternity,  our  ilhistration  must  find  its  comple- 
tion. Into  that  blessed  state  we  may  not  follow  tliLMii  now.  But  in  it, 
may  we  ourselves  read  their  completed  histories,  and  learn  to  bless  God 
anew  for  the  works  and  benign  influence  of  tiie  "  Clergy  of  Ancient 
Rehoboth." 

I  only  add  that  it  would  not  become  me  to  attempt  to  speak  of  the 
personal  character  and  attainments  and  labors  of  men  so  far  removed 
from  our  day  as  are  the  Newmans  and  their  successors  in  the  ministry. 
Of  the  sacred  learning  of  tlie  elder  Newman,  we  have  heard  from  the 
orator  of  the  day.  We  may  suppose  them  all  to  have  been  sound,  able, 
learned  men,  qualified  for  the  high  functions  of  th3ir  office,  and  com- 
mending themselves  to  men's  consciences,  in  the  sight  of  Grod,  by  their 
holy  lives  and  their  public  teachings,  drawn,  in  the  true  Protestant 
method,  from  the  oracles  of  revealed  Tinith. 

Be  it  oui's,  who  have  entered  into  their  labors  and  embraced  from  the 
heart  their  Protestant  faith,  to  imitate  their  virtues,  and  to  reverence, 
cherish  and  ol^ey  that  sacred  Word,  of  which  they  were  such  devout 
students  and  such  able  expounders.  Thus  may  we,  and  those  who  come 
after  us,  stand  accepted  before  the  God  of  our  fathers,  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord. 

The  sixth  sentiment  was — 

The  Medical  Profession  of  Ancient  Rehoboth. 

Doct.  Benoni  Carpenter  of  Attleborough  responded  to  this 
sentiment  as  follows : 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : 

It  is  good  for  us  to  be  liere  to-day.  We  all  claim  to  be  directly  or 
indirectly,  as  I  suppose,  the  descendants  of  Old  Rehoboth ;  and  if  there 
be  one  sentiment  stronger  than  another,  if  there  be  one  internal  instinct 
more  potent  than  all  others,  it  is  wliere  a  man  desires  at  some  time  in 
his  life  to  return  to  the  spot  tliat  gave  him  birth.  I  claim,  Mr.  l*resi- 
dent,  to  be  one  of  the  direct  and  lineal  descendants  of  the  first  William 
Carpenter,  who  Hved  over  on  the  other  side  of  this  Common.  Thou<>-h 
born  in  a  different  county,  I  dehght  to  be  here,  and  to  see  so  many  of 
the  Old  Rehoboth  people  surrounding  me.  And,  Sir,  I  suppose  from 
12 


00  THE      CELEBRATION. 

the  sentiment  tlint  I  am  oxpectefl  to  answer  particularly  for  the  medical 
profession  that  originated  in  this  town ;  and  wlien  I  say  tliis  town,  I 
mean  witliin  the  limits  of  Old  Rehoboth,  including  this  town  and  the 
towns  surrounding.  Were  I  to  go  into  details  in  relation  to  these  men, 
my  task  would  be  a  difficult  one,  for  wliatever  else  lielioboth  has  been, 
it  certainly  has  been  exceedingly  prolific  in  physicians.  I  can  do  no 
more  in  this  connection,  nor  is  it  proper  that  I  should  so  do,  than  sim- 
ply give  you  the  names  of  the  medical  men  who  have  originated  in  this 
to^ATi.  I  will  begin  first  with  that  part  of  Eehoboth  now  designated 
Seekonk. 

The  first  physician  in  this  town  of  whom  I  have  any  knowledge  (and 
the  knowledge  I  have  of  him  I  obtained  from  my  grandmother,  wlio 
died  one  hundred  years  old,)  was  Dr.  David  Turner,  residing  in  the 
southern  part  of  Rehoboth  proper,  near  Palmer's  River — a  physician  of 
the  soul  and  of  the  body ;  a  preacher  on  the  Sabbath,  administering  to 
the  moral  and  relis-ious  necessities  of  men,  and  during  the  remainder  of 
the  week  taking  care  of  theii-  physical  health.  He  was  a  man  of  a  good 
deal  of  wit  and  a  good  deal  of  sensitiveness^  a  man  very  much  esteemed 
by  the  people  of  his  time.     He  died  in  1757,  aged  03. 

Dr.  Thomas  Bowen,  who  lived  near  the  time  of  Dr.  Turner,  was  also 
a  distinguished  physician,  as  well  as  a  military  colonel. 

One  of  the  first  pliyslcians  of  this  town  of  whom  I  have  any  knowl- 
edge was  Dr.  Joseph  Bridgham.  From  him  descended  tlie  Bridgliams 
of  the  adjacent  city ;  and  their  name  has  spread  from  this  town  over 
different  parts  of  the  countiy. 

One  of  the  most  distinguished  names  in  science,  especially  medical 
science,  but  not  limited  to  that  entii-ely, — a  name  known  all  over  New 
England  for  the  energy  of  its  bearer, — was  that  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith. 
He  originated  in  tliat  part  of  Relioboth  near  the  residence  of  Dr.  AMiit- 
marsh,  in  the  southern  part  of  this  town.  A  poor  boy,  he  fought  his 
own  way  along  through  life.  He  had  an  especial  taste  for  surgery,  and 
became  Professor  of  Surgery  in  Yale  College.  After  continuing  there 
in  that  capacity  a  great  many  years,  he  left  and  founded  the  iiiedical 
department  in  Dartmouth  College.  He  was  the  father  of  scientific  sur- 
gery in  New  England.  Ncai'ly  all  his  descendants  were  physicians. 
One  died  in  the  city  adjacent  nearly  a  year  ago. 

Another  physician  originating  in  this  town  was  Dr.  Daniel  Thurber, 
born  not  far  from  Newell's  Tavern.  He  studied  medicine  and  settled  in 
Bcllinghaui.  and  was  extremely  endeared  to  his  people  there.     There 


THE      CELEBRATION.  91 

may  he  those  here  wlio  knew  his  value  among  tliose  who  employed  him, 
and  how  gx'eatly  he  was  lamented  when  he  passed  away. 

A  family  of  ])liysicians  originated  in  this  town  liy  the  name  of  ]iunn, 
who  were  men  of  great  celebrity,  and  practiced,  I  thhik,  in  Providence. 

Another  name  was  that  of  Dr.  Levi  Wheaton,  who  also  originated  in 
Rehoboth,  in  tlie  soutlieast  part  of  what  is  now  Seekonk.  I  will  say  of 
him,  in  passing,  in  the  language  of  Pope, — 

"  An  honest  man's  the  noblest  work  of  God." 

If  I  was  ever  acquainted  with  a  man  whom  I  believed  to  be  strictly  and 
purely  honest,  and  w-hom  I  belie^ved  to  be  devoted  to  his  profession, 
who  did  evei-ything  in  his  power,  by  study  and  scientific  research,  for 
the  purpose  of  mitigating  the  sufferings  of  mankind,  that  man  was  Dr. 
Levi  WTieatou. 

Another  name  known  to  this  town  was  Dr.  Ridley.  He  practiced 
during  the  Revolutionary  war  in  tlie  army.  He  was  a  man  of  a  great 
deal  of  eccentricity,  and  not  remarkably  well  acquainted  with  the  insti- 
tutions cf  this  country.  I  rememl^er  attending  a  patient  in  some  part 
of  the  town  where  he  had  previously  been  visiting.  The  man  had 
wanted  him  to  take  his  pay  in  corn,  and  shelled  out  to  hini  all  the  pig 
corn.  The  old  gentleman  was  not  particularly  well  pleased.  But  by 
and  by  the  same  man  was  sick  again,  and  sent  for  the  Doctor  to  attend 
him.  He  did  not  get  well,  but  kept  lingering  along  in  his  illness  for 
some  time,  and  finally  said  to  the  Doctor,  "  What  is  the  reason  I  do  not 
get  well  faster?  Here  I  am,  unable  to  get  about,  and  yet  I  have  been 
under  your  treatment  for  a  long  time."  "  Never  mind,"  said  the  Doc- 
tor, "I  am  only  trying  to  work  that  pig  com  out  of  you." 

Dr.  Hutchings,  who  died  a  few  years  since,  and  Dr.  Allen,  of  wliom 
I  knew  but  little,  were  among  the  earlier  physicians  in  this  vicinity. 

This  town  also  gave  rise  to  several  men  of  the  medical  profession  by 
the  name  of  Bucklin.  One  of  them  went  South,  and  died  on  his  way 
to  Texas.  Another  was  settled  in  HoUiston ;  while  a  third  was  settled 
adjacent  to  this  place,  and  some  of  us  attended  his  funeral  a  few  years 
since. 

I  would  not  forget  to  mention  in  the  catalogue  of  medical  men  who 
have  originated  m  Old  Rehoboth,  the  name  of  3Iiller,  of  whom  I  need 
say  nothing  to  any  citizen  of  this  vicinity. 

In  the  town  of  Rehoboth  proper,  the  name  of  Fuller  oocur.s  to  me  as 


92  T  II  E     C  K  L  ]•:  li  R  A  T  I  0  N  . 

about  the  first  physician  tliut  practiced  liere — a  man  of  skill  and  emi- 
nence, especially  as  a  surgeon. 

The  name  of  Bullock  is  also  prolific  in  jjhysicians.  One  venerable 
man  of  that  name,  who  resided  in  the  southwestern  part  of  the  town, 
lived  to  be  one  hundred  years  old. 

Dr.  Robertson  studied  medicine  with  Dr.  Blackington,  and  after- 
wards went  to  Boston  and  becimie  an  eminent  physician  in  that  city. 

The  Drs.  Blanding — I  might  mention  several  of  them  of  that  name — 
originated  in  this  town.  One  I  must  allude  to  particularly,  who  studied 
medicine  here  in  Eehoboth  with  Dr.  Fuller,  settled  in  Attleborough, 
and  afterwards  passed  to  Camden,  South  Carolina,  where  he  practiced, 
and  became  an  eminent  scholar  in  natural  history.  A  few  years  before 
he  died,  his  cabinet  of  natural  history  was  prol)ably  larger  than  that  of 
any  single  individual  in  the  United  States.  The  specimens  he  left  in 
Camden,  where  he  died,  are  beautiful  and  elegant,  and  would  repay 
any  individual  who  takes  an  interest  in  that  branch  of  study  for  making 
a  journey  there  to  view  them. 

I  now  come  to  my  own  name,  wliich  I  would  not  mention  but  for  the 
fact  that  it  has  been  wonderfully  prolific  in  physicians.  Rehoboth  proper 
has  given  rise  to  certainly  eight  physicians  of  the  name  of  Carpenter, 
and  how  many  more  I  do  not  know.  A  very  considerable  branch  of 
the  Carpenters  m  Vermont  originated  in  this  town  of  Old  Rehoboth. 
There  are  a  good  many  of  them  who  are  likewise  physicians. 

Pawtucket  gave  rise  to  Dr.  Bilhngs,  who  afterwards  left  and  went  to 
Mansfield,  and  died  in  that  town.  Dr.  Davenport  also  practiced  and 
died  in  this  town.  Dr.  Manchester  was  another.  There  is  also  the 
name  of  Dr.  Stanley  of  Attleborough.  Swansea  also  gave  rise  to  a 
hereditaiy  race  of  physicians — grandfather,  father  and  son  all  living 
too-ether  at  the  same  time.  The  elder  was  a  hundred  years  of  age  while 
tlie  younger  was  living.  I  know  but  very  little  of  others  in  that  town 
except  the  Winslows. 

In  addition  to  these  names,  there  may  be  mentioned  as  among  the 
physicians  of  the  past,  Drs.  Fowler,  RudlifF.  Bliss,  Bolton,  Thayer, 
Wheelock,  Johnson  and  Hartshorn,  each  of  whom  were  ornaments  to 
the  medical  profession. 

There  is  one  fact  which  I  very  much  delight  to  be  able  to  mention 
in  relation  to  the  medical  men  who  have  originated  in  Reho1)oth,  and 
that  is,  their  perfect  exemption  from  quackery  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end.     However  scientific  they  may  have  been,  (and  certainly  some 


THE     CELEBRATION.  98 

have  been  veiy  much  so,)  or  liowever  much  tliey  may  Iiave  been  want- 
ing in  science,  one  thing  they  have  been  true  to,  and  that  is,  the  opinion 
that  a  profession  that  has  existed  hundreds  and  thousands  of  years  must 
of  necessity,  from  all  the  knowledge  thus  transmitted,  be  a  little  more 
learned  and  scientific  than  the  little  windfalls  of  to-day  and  yesterday. 
They  have  generally  pursued  that  course  that  has  made  them  an  orna- 
ment to  their  profession  and  a  blessing  to  humanity. 

Allow  me,  Sir,  m  closing,  to  offer  the  following  sentiment : 

Old  Rehoholh,  in  her  broadefi  domain — May  she  continue  to  be,  as  she  has  been, 
productive  of  good  men  and  beautiful  women. 

The  seventh  sentiment  was — 

The  Legal  Profession  of  Ancient  Rehoboth. 

Simeon  Bo  wen,  Esq.,  of  Attleborough,  responded  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner : 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

Convened  as  we  are  on  this  anniversary  of  our  national  mdependence, 
in  the  shade  of  yonder  sacred  and  venerable  chm-ch  erected  to  God,  and 
on  this  fair  and  level  plain ;  basking  as  we  are  to-day  in  the  rich  sun- 
light of  a  glorious  civilization ;  rejoicing  as  we  do  in  the  rich  fruition  of 
a  thousand  blessings — the  blessing  of  peace  with  all  nations,  the  blessing 
of  free  schools  and  of  the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge,  the  blessino-s 
of  a  free  government,  of  a  political  confederacy  of  States  enjoying  civil 
and  rehgious  liberty — it  becomes  us  now  and  here  to  look  both  to  the 
past  and  the  future,  and  to  consider  by  what  means,  agencies  and  influ- 
ences we  have  reached  this  national  felicity  of  position,  and  by  what 
instiTimentalities  our  present  glory  and  prosperity  may  be  augmented 
and  perpetuated. 

It  is,  Mr.  President,  a  little  more  than  two  centuries  ago  that  these 
fair  and  cultivated  fields  which  we  behold  to-day  rejoicing  in  peace  and 
plenty,  and  smiling  with  fruits  and  flowers,  were  only  a  dark  and  almost 
impenetrable  forest,  inhabited  only  by  wild  beasts  and  by  roving  tribes 
of  rude  and  warlike  savages. 

A  little  more  than  two  centuries  ago  it  was  that  an  immortal  vessel, 
the  Mayflower,  with  her  precious  freight  of  human  souls,  was  first  moored 
in  Plymouth  harbor ;  and  then  and  there  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  our  ven- 
erable ancestors,  destined,  under  Divine  aid,  guidance  and  protection,  to 


94  T  HE      C  E  L  E  IJ  11  A  T  1  U  N  . 

iiiaiijriirato  a  iimre  glitiioiis  civilization  tlian  the  world  had  ever  before 
lielield.  Hist  stc'])ped  foot  \ii)on  our  .shores.  Then  and  there,  as  ever 
true  to  their  ]iol)le  mission  and  to  the  dictates  of  their  consciences,  they 
went  forth  into  the  wilderness,  under  an  unpropitious  wintry  sky,  to 
meet  and  battle  with  trials,  disasters  and  difficulties. 

And  with  what  sueeess  was  their  enterprise  and  achievements  attended  ? 
Before  their  omnipotent  arm  the  forest  receded ;  under  their  wise  ordina- 
tion, government  was  instituted,  schools  established,  churches  erected, 
and  towns  and  villages  s])rung  up  as  if  l)y  magic.  Fully  imbued  with 
religious  zeal,  stern  in  morality,  rigid  in  virtue,  patient  in  toil,  brave  in 
the  midst  of  dangers,  ardent,  earnest  and  hopeful,  they  went  onward  in 
their  great  enter])rise  eoncjuering  and  to  con(juer,  and  there  laid  broad 
and  deep  the  foundations  of  a  mighty  emjiire.  Heroically  tliey  lived, 
heroically  they  died ;  and,  dying,  they  bequeathed  to  their  descend- 
ants and  to  us,  their  posterity,  a  rich  heritage — the  glory  they  achieved 
and  brought  with  tliem,  and  the  distinguished  example  of  piety  and  vir- 
tue, patience  and  fortitude  and  courage.  And  when  I  ask  to-day,  Mr. 
President,  what  influences  and  agencies  have  contributed  to  make  New 
England  what  she  now  is  in  morality,  intelligence,  prosperity  and  glory, 
I  would  point,  with  reverence  and  gratitude,  to  the  Pilgrim  Fathers. 
They  passed  away,  and  their  descendants,  fired  with  the  spirit  of  the 
fathers,  took  up  the  work  laid  down  by  them  in  death,  and  pushed  it 
on  to  a  glorious  triumph. 

We  have  met  here  to  celeljrate  this  day  upon  which  our  fathers  adopted 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  to  commemorate  the  virtue  of  those 
patriots  who  there  enrolled  their  names.  We  have  come  up  here  to 
kindle  anew  the  fires  of  patriotism  on  the  altars  of  Freedom,  and  declare 
anew  our  devotion  to  the  cause  of  Liberty,  to  renew  our  mutual  pledges 
of  fidelity  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union. 

But,  iMr.  President,  1  was  called  upon  to  respond  to  a  sentiment, — 
* '  The  Legal  Profession  of  Ancient  Kehoboth, ' ' — and  this  may  seem  like  a 
dio-ression  from  my  proper  c(3urse  of  remark.  I  will  say,  there  have  been 
those  who  were  the  representatives  of  that  profession  within  the  town  of  Ke- 
hoboth, though  I  think  their  numbers  small  compared  with  the  other  pro- 
fessions enumerated  by  those  who  have  spoken  before  me.  There  have 
been  but  few  whose  names  I  can  now  recall.  There  is  one  who  is  now 
amonn'  the  living  who  was,  a  few  years  ago,  an  humble  attorney  within 
the  borders  of  these  towns.  Upon  these  plains  he  had  his  office.  Now 
he  is  in  honor,  and  held  the  last  term  of  our  Superior  Court  at  New 


THE      CELEBRATION.  0") 

Bedford.  I  refer  to  the  Hon.  Ezra  Wilkinson.  Others  have  f!;one  out 
from  this  town  who  have  shed  lustre  upini  their  profession,  ami  have 
served  and  adorned  tlieir  day  and  generation. 

There  is  one  rj^uestion  whicli  partakes  of  the  nature  of  an  e({uitable, 
constitutional  question,  that  it  may  not  be  inappropriate  to  allude  to  on 
this  occasion.  And,  Mr.  President,  I  would  refer  you  for  a  moment, 
not  with  the  uitention  of  discussing  the  matter  to  any  lengtli,  but  briefly 
refer  to  it  as  a  question  of  local  interest,  and  one  for  the  mention  of 
which  the  day  is  not  too  good.  I  allude  to  the  question  of  the  bound- 
ary Hue  between  this  venerable  Commonwealth  and  the  State  of  Rhode 
Island.  Tliere  is  an  attempt  made  that  a  portion  of  our  good  old  town 
of  Rehoboth  may  be  severed  and  given  over,  ceded,  granted  to  the  State 
of  Rhode  Island.  Mr.  President,  it  is  improper  that  I  should  dwell 
long  upon  this  subject.  But  it  seems  to  nie  a  lit  occasion  to  refer  those 
who  are  here  present  as  representatives  of  those  towns  wliicli  are  inter- 
ested in  this  question,  as  a  subject  worthy  of  thouglit.  Modern  Reho- 
both to-day  will  protest  against  such  a  procedure  on  the  part  of  those 
two  States.  Seekonk  has  been  inclined,  by  her  action  in  town  meetino-, 
and  Rehoboth  too,  I  think,  to  grant  even  more  than  our  bountiful  Com- 
missioners awarded  of  our  territory  to  Rhode  Island.  In  the  first  place, 
Mr.  President,  I  shovdd  object,  on  the  part  of  Rehoboth,  that  this  thintr 
should  ever  happen.  I  protest  against  it  for  this  reason,  that  Rhode 
Island  has  no  legal,  equitable  and  constitutional  claim  to  any  of  the  soil 
of  Seekonk.  In  the  next  place,  I  should  protest  against  it  for  this  rea- 
son, that  it  was  not  intended  that  a  portion  of  this  old  town  could  ever 
be  received  and  granted  to  a  foreign  jui-isdiction.  Our  fathers  gave  up 
to  Seekonk  a  portion  of  this  territory  bounded  on  the  west  and  south 
by  the  Pawtucket  River  and  Providence  River.  There  are  benefits, 
privileges  and  immunities  which  belong  to  modern  Rehoboth  which  they 
are  very  loth  this  day  to  relinquish.  I  do  not  believe  that  such  a  result 
as  has  been  intended  by  certain  citizens  in  this  vicinity  will  ever  happen. 
I  hope  for  better  things.  I  liope  that  these  towns  will  ever  remain 
together.  Although  they  are  separate  by  different  town  governments, 
yet  they  are  one  in  everything  that  ntakes  up  a  happy  counnunity. 
They  may  be  distinct  like  tlie  billows,  yet  they  are  ever  one  like  the 
ocean.  One  in  a  common  brotherhood ;  one  for  the  Union  ;  one  in 
reverence  for  and  obedience  to  the  hiws ;  one,  in  short,  in  everything 
that  makes  a  virtuous,  happy  and  prf)S'])erous  people. 


96  THE     C  E  L  E  li  11  A  T  I  0  N  . 

The  eighth  sentiment  was — 

Knowh<l(je  and  True  Jiili;/ion— The  safeguards  of  American  Li))crty. 

Hon.  and  Rev.  Sidney  Dean,  ex-member  of  Congress  from 
Connecticut,  now  Pastor  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  at 
Pawtucket,  responded  as  follows  : 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  am  a  son  of  Connecticut,  a  genuine,  old-fushioned  Connecticut 
Yankee,  and  probably  her  only  representative  present,  and,  iti  her 
name,  I  thank  you  for  this  kind  invitation.  It  has  Ijeen  generally  sup- 
posed that  a  Connecticut  Yankee  carried  about  with  him,  in  one  pocket, 
a  whetstone,  and  in  the  other,  a  handful  of  sharpened  pegs,  which  he 
wished  to  "dicker"  off  as  oats,  and  that,  m  general  terms,  he  was  a 
sharp  trader.  But  do  not  be  frightened ;  I  do  not  intend  to  ask  any  of 
you  to  trade  jack-knives.  [-4  voice — All  we  want  now  is  some  of  your 
tricks.]  We  learn  those  after  we  come  to  Massachusetts,  and  are  capi- 
tal imitators. 

While  hstening  to  the  able  historical  Oration  of  our  friend,  Mr.  New- 
man, upon  the  men  of  marked  ability  which  this  ancient  and  honorable 
town  of  Kehoboth  has  given  to  the  world,  and  also  the  professional  re- 
sume and  classification  by  the  gentlemen  who  have  preceded  me  at  this 
table,  I  have  almost  wished  that  I  had  been  born  in  Rehoboth  myself. 
It  would  be  an  honor  to  any  man  to  find  his  birth-name  enrolled  among 
such  a  fist  of  eminent  fellow  townsmen,  filling  as  nobly  as  they  have  the 
different  professions.  But  I  can  claim  a  Massachusetts  relationship,  for 
my  honored  mother  was  a  Plymouth  woman,  in  regular  lineage  from  the 
Pilgi'ims  of  the  3Iayflower,  and  my  revered  father  was  a  Taunton  man, 
and,  with  the  usual  pride  of  Tauntonians,  in  the  time  of  herring  fishery, 
if  asked  where  he  came  from,  could  say,  "Taunton,  Good  Lord!" 
And  thus  I  claim  a  kinship  with  you  all.  All  the  idol  worship  I  ever 
performed  in  my  life,  was  performed  over  a  piece  of  granite  rock  broken 
from  the  great  boulder  upon  which  the  Pilgrims  landed,  and  which  I  depos- 
ited years  ago  among  the  treasures  of  the  Connecticut  Historical  Society. 

The  good  old  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  God  bless  her  !  She 
is  one  of  the  brightest  stars  in  the  whole  American  galaxy.  There  is 
nothing:  that  is  solid  in  morals,  high-toned  in  honor,  beautiful  in  affec- 
tion,  sterhng  in  education,  brave  in  patriotism,  that  can  excel  the  old 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts. 


THE     CELEBRATION.  97 

I  know  Massachusetts  aiul  her  leading  sons  well.  It  is  an  honor  to 
be  born,  to  live  or  to  die  upon  her  soil.  Her  people  are  intelligent, 
educated,  generous  and  brave.  I  have  had  the  lionor  to  stand  by  tlie 
side  of  her  selected  Representatives,  in  seasons  of  trial  and  of  mad  ex- 
citement, when  it  required  a  cool  head,  a  steady  and  a  lion  courage  ; 
and  I  know  that,  for  high-toned  purpose,  courteousness  of  bearing  and 
tnie  heroism,  they  bore  the  palm  proudly.  I  have  seen  them  stand  just 
like  anvils  to  the  stroke  of  the  sledge,  without  flinc'.iing  a  hair,  but  giv- 
ing back  the  true  ring  of  the  genuine  metal.  The  race  of  great  men 
will  never  die  out  of  the  "  Old  Bay  State,"  for  it  will  take  a  thousand 
generations  to  perceptibly  dilute  her  Puritan  and  patridt  l)lood ;  and  T 
trust  she  will  stand  in  her  nitegrity  until  the  foundations  of  the  ever- 
lasting hills  are  finally  removed. 

The  toast  to  which  I  am  called  to  respond  is  a  great  truism.  Per- 
haps I  should  have  reversed  the  order  of  statement  if  I  had  written  it, 
if  by  "knowledge"  the  author  of  this  toast  meant  scientific  acqune- 
ments  only.  In  our  history,  the  church  preceded  the  school-house,  and 
the  minister  the  schoolmaster.  True  religion  was  the  basis  upon  which 
our  civil,  and  I  may  also  add,  our  political  education  was  reared.  I  am 
not  a  betting  man,  but  so  prominently  is  this  fact  in  our  history,  that  I 
would  wager  a  fortune  against  a  dime,  that  if  any  considerable  body  of 
the  descendants  of  the  Puiitans — say  these  citizens  of  Eehoboth — were 
to  emigrate  and  settle  a  township  upon  some  part  of  our  great  West, 
they  would  take  a  meeting-house  and  minister  with  them.  The  scliool- 
house  would  follow  as  a  necessity ;  for  where  the  heart  is  right,  it  will 
crowd  its  great  powers  up  into  the  brain,  and  demand  for  it  the  education 
of  the  school-room.     A  christian  people  is  perforce  an  educated  people. 

The  Puritans  found  in  the  Bible  the  great  foundation  principles  of  all 
personal,  social  and  political  rights.  In  their  structure  of  government, 
they  differed  with  the  rest  of  the  enthe  world.  The  governments  of  the 
world  were  monarchical,  either  absolute  or  limited,  but  they  all  em- 
braced the  fundamental  idea  of  the  rightful  exercise  of  power  by  one 
man  over  another.  Our  government  was  based  upon  the  freedom  of 
the  individual.  And  the  nearer  we  approximate  that,  the  more  sunple 
and  perfect  will  be  tlie  governmental  machinery.  Governments  are  a 
necessity,  but  should  only  be  constructed  to  preserve  intact  the  individ- 
ual rights  of  all  within  the  limits  of  their  jurisdiction.  The  moment 
government  becomes  a  power  to  rob  the  individual  citizen  of  one  of  his 
inherent  and  social  rights,  that  moment  it  has  adopted  the  monarcliiral 
13 


98  THE     CELEBRATION. 

basis,  and  tlie  tendency  is  to  a  monarcliieal  machine.  The  principles 
whicli  underHe  tlie  two  systems,  constitute  the  great  rock  of  difference 
between  the  government  established  by  our  fathers,  and  those  of  tlie 
Old  World. 

The  early  English  Puritans  learned  these  primary  tnaths  by  studying 
the  Bible  at  the  side  of  their  hearth-stones,  and  in  its  exposition  by  their 
venerated  ministers  at  their  covenant  gatherini^s.  It  was  upon  English 
soil  that  this  conflict  beo-an,  and  it  culminated  in  Magna  Cliarta,  in  the 
reign  of  John,  in  the  year  1215.  That  instrument,  the  basis  of  all 
English  freedom,  from  which  our  Puritan  fathers  copied,  and  upon  which 
they  improved,  embraces  four  points,  all  striking  at  despotic  power,  and 
enlarging  the  area  of  indi\ndual  liberty  : 

1.  The  sacredness  and  perpetuity  of  the  right  to  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  upon  the  part  of  the  people. 

2.  The  trial  of  an  accused  person  by  a  jury  of  his  peers,  and  no 
conviction  without  the  evidence  of  credible  witnesses. 

3.  The  freedom  of  every  person  to  travel  in  and  out  of  the  Kingdom 
at  pleasure,  except  in  a  time  of  war.      . 

4.  No  taxation  without  representation,  the  peojile,  in  the  persons  of 
their  chosen  representatives,  having  the  control  of  the  purse. 

These  were  the  great  landmarks  of  all  liberty ;  and  under  these,  the 
British  government  has  stood  up  as  a  bright  light  to  the  Old  World. 
What  is  the  difference  between  France  and  England?  I  know  we 
sometimes  think  how  strange  it  is  that  the  volatile  Frencliman  should 
be  always  in  trouble,  brave  as  he  is  and  lion-hearted  as  he  is.  Do  you 
not  know  that  nowhere  in  the  history  of  the  French  goveniment  has  it 
learned  the  great  lesson  that  for  a  nation  to  be  free,  the  individual  citi- 
zens must  be  free  in  every  particular  ?  It  has  waded  through  seas  of 
gore ;  its  guillotine  has  been  perfectly  bajitized,  time  and  again,  with 
the  blood  of  the  flower  of  France,  in  the  great  washings  of  its  national 
sins,  and  yet  it  has  never  reached  that  sublime  idea  of  the  perfect  and 
complete  liberty  of  the  individual  citizen.  Neither  has  Russia  learned 
it ;  and  Italy  is  even  now  testing  the  problem,  under  the  leadership  of 
the  brave  Garibaldi  and  his  compatriots.  Whether  she  has  sufficient 
of  the  Puritan  in  her  composition  to  give  her  permanent  success,  time 
alone  will  determine. 

I  cannot,  in  the  few  moments  allowed  me,  mark  tlie  points  of  im- 
provement in  our  own  republican  form  of  government.  Thank  God, 
the  American  people  learned  this  great  truth  early.     But  the  moment 


THE     CELEBRATION.  \)\) 

we  depart  from  it  as  a  national  policy,  and  set  up  a  class  that  shall  Imlil 
the  power  to  control  the  rights  of  the  people,  that  moment  our  galaxy 
will  go  down  to  its  bloody  baptism  of  death. 

This  is  Freedom's  natal  day,  and  our  festivities  are  natural,  and  must 
meet  the  approbation  of  every  patriot.  But,  as  christians  and  philan- 
thropists, let  us  pause  in  our  rejoicings,  and  in  remembering  that  we 
\iBxefou)'  ))u/lions  of  slaves  upon  An\crican  soil,  drop  a  tear  over  their 
sad  condition.  Their  individuality  is  utterly  annihilated.  They  are 
the  governed,  without  a  voice  in  the  character  of  the  government.  To 
them,  our  system  is  the  most  absolute  and  odious  of  monarchies.  Tlie 
system  of  chattelism  is  not  a  legitimate  offshoot  of  our  repuldican  princi- 
ples, but  a  barbarous  excresence,  fastened  upon  us  in  spite  of  its  incon- 
gruity. I  will  close  by  suggesting  to  you  that  our  brethren  of  the  South 
and  their  Northern  sympathizers  are  fast  departing  from  the  great  prin- 
ciple of  individual  freedom,  the  bulwark  of  national  liberty,  and  imita- 
ting the  elan  government  of  past  ages. 

Mr.  President,  I  am  glad  to  be  here  to-day  and  mingle  witli  the  citi- 
zens of  Massachusetts  in  what  I  call  a  new-fashioned,  godly  celebration 
of  the  Fourth  of  July,  without  powder,  without  drums,  and  best  and 
bravest  of  all,  without  intoxicating  liquor. 

The  ninth  sentiment  was — 

Our  Common  and  Sabbatli  Schools. 

Rev.  A.  C.  Childs  of  Rehoboth  responded  in  the  following 
manner : 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : 

I  have  heard  of  a  young  African  who  once  listened  to  a  sermon  from 
one  of  our  missionaries  and  afterwards  repeated  it  to  a  group  gathered 
about  him ;  and  when  the  missionary  told  him  that  he  was  doino-  that 
which  he  himself  could  not  do,  without  being  conscious  of  any  superior 
ability,  the  untutored  negro  touched  his  forehead  with  his  finger,  and 
said,  "  Wh3n  I  hear  anything  great,  it  remains  there."  By  great,  he 
probably  meant  good.  Now,  Sir,  I  have  heard  so  many  good  thiuf^s 
here  to-day,  and  they  have  so  filled  up  the  space  there  [pointing  to  his 
forehead]  that  I  am  afraid  the  little  I  was  intending  to  say  is  actually 
crowded  out. 

The  sentiment  to  which  I  am  invited  to  respond  is,  "  Our  Common 


100  THE      C  E  L  E  B  U  A  TI  0  N  . 

and  Saljbatli  ScIkioIs."  These  are  some  of  the  institutions  in  wliich  we 
as  an  Aniericau  people  are  wont  to  glory ;  not  that  they  are  altogether 
peculiar  to  us,  but  because  on  the  influences  which  go  out  from  them 
we  are  especially  dependent  for  our  success  as  a  people.  Education 
and  religion  are  the  two  main  pillars  on  which  a  repiddic  nmst  rest  for  its 
support.  It  is  one  thing  to  say  this  and  another  io  feel  it ;  and  he  who 
has  caught  such  a  view  of  his  own  wants  and  the  wants  of  the  people  as 
to  feel  and  acknowledge  this,  is  one  on  whom  we  may  rely  for  assistance 
in  every  hour  of  peril. 

Next  to  the  family,  there  is  no  place  where  the  child  is  so  much  in- 
fluenced as  in  the  Common  School  and  the  Sabbath  School.  If  it  is 
true,  as  has  been  said,  "  that  the  child  is  father  of  the  man,"  then  we 
need  to  watch  and  see  what  sort  of  influences  these  institutions  are  send- 
ing forth ;  for  it  is  not  the  schools  that  educate,  but  the  teachers  who  are 
employed  in  them.  As  some  one  says :  "  School-houses  do  not  educate 
the  inmates,  and  lazy,  ignorant  schoolmasters  quite  as  little."  What 
we  want  is  competent  teachers ;  persons  who  are  in  love  with  their  em- 
ployment, and  who  will  teach  the  truth  in  all  exactness  and  precision, 
and  with  the  greatest  fullness.  We  need  then  have  no  fear  as  to  the 
kind  of  scholars  we  shall  have.  With  such  institutions  and  such  teach- 
ers, "our  sons  will  be  as  plants  grown  up  in  their  youth,  and  our 
daughters  as  corner  stones  pohshed  after  the  similitude  of  a  palace." 

The  tenth  sentiment  was — 

The  Day  -vre  Celebrate. 

Rev.  A.  H.  Rhodes,  Pastor  of  the  Universalist  Church  at 
Seekonk,  but  residing  in  Providence,  responded  to  this  senti- 
ment as  follows : 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : 

In  the  few  remarks  I  shall  make  in  response  to  this  sentiment,  I  pro- 
pose to  be  rather  desultory.  In  the  first  place,  I  would  remark  that 
such  an  occasion  has  never  before  been  granted  to  me,  and  may  never  be 
again.  Dr.  Carpenter  must  have  forgotten  Dr.  IMartin.  It  is  my  pleas- 
ure to  say  here  that  I  believe  I  owe  the  duration  of  my  mortal  life, 
under  God,  to  the  scientific  medical  skill  of  that  man.  I  am  not  at 
present  a  resident  of  Seekonk.  I  live  in  that  border  State  to  which 
allusion  has  been  made  as  having  attempted  to  deprive  you  of  some  of 


THE     CELEBllATION.  101 

your  temtory.  But  as  a  protest  lias  been  made  against  our  marriage, 
I  will  not  enforce  the  bans,  as  forced  marriages  do  not  amount  to  nmcb. 
But  I  suppose,  tbougb  you  -will  not  join  us,  you  will  still  bring  your 
corn  to  market  at  Providence. 

Wben  Napoleon,  witli  his  mighty  hosts  of  French  soldiers,  trod  the 
soil  of  Egypt,  be  presented  himself  before  that  powerful  army  of  brave 
Mamelukes,  and  stimulated  bis  men  to  their  mightiest  efforts  by  pointing 
them  to  the  pyramids  and  saying  to  them,  "  Soldiers  !  from  the  bei'^-hts 
of  yonder  pyramids,  forty  generations  behold  your  actions."  So  I  would 
say,  that  I  l)elieve  that  the  spirits  of  oui"  fathers  are  to-day  bendino-  over 
us  from  the  high  battlements  of  heaven,  taking  cognizance  of  this  meet- 
ing, and  reading  the  motives  of  our  hearts ;  and  I  believe  that  our  course 
is  meeting  their  approbation,  and  that  it  is  our  duty  so  to  cultivate  our 
spu-itual  and  moral  energies  that  here  in  this  existence  we  may  be  able 
to  apprehend  the  great  fact  that  those  sainted  dead  are  muiisterino- 
spirits  here. 

I  am  called  upon  to  respond  to  the  sentiment,  "  The  Day  we  Cele- 
brate." To-day  we  have  a  bvely  sense  of  the  privileges  of  independ- 
ence. Tingling  in  the  veins  of  our  fingers  is  the  sense  of  the  great  fact 
of  our  fathers'  physical  emancipation  from  George  the  Third.  But,  my 
friends,  men  and  women  of  America,  let  me  tell  you,  while  you  boast  over 
the  glorious  achievements  of  their  Revolutionary  efforts,  while  you  glory 
over  the  historic  fact,  while  you  joy  over  your  inalienable  rights,  there 
is  an  emancipation  in  the  future  of  which  you  now  but  little  dream,  one 
which  shall  eclipse  that  from  George  the  Third  as  much  as  that  o-reat 
temple  which  stood  upon  Mount  Moriah  eclipsed  this  humble  church  of 
the  Most  High.  It  is  that  private  emancipation  of  which  we  read,  when 
Christ  shall  have  destroyed  the  devU  and  all  his  works,  and  shall  brino- 
to  an  end  all  transgression  and  sin,  and  the  Great  Father — not  only  of 
the  American  brotherhood,  but  the  Great  Father  of  all  the  generations 
of  humanity — shall  raise  us  up  and  make  us  to  sit  together  in  heavenly 
places  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 

The  eleventh  sentiment  was — 

The  Fourth  of  July,  1776— A  day  of  trial  to  our  fathers,  but  one  of  joyful  remem- 
brance to  their  posterity. 

Rev.  Francis  Hortox,  Pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church 
at  Barrington,  R.  I.,  made  the  following  response  : 


102  THE     CELEBRATION. 

Mr.  Presiileiit,  Ladles  and  Gentlemen : 

To  one  bom  almost  under  the  sliaduw  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  whoso 
oarlioi-t  reeolleetions  of  a  venerable  grandsire  are  associated  with  details 
of  that  memorable  field  where  Warren  fell,  and  whose  residence  for 
years  was  not  far  from  the  spot  where  was  shed  the  early  blood  of  the 
Revolution,  nothing  can  be  more  grateful  than  to  respond  to  the  senti- 
ment just  expressed.  The  4th  of  July,  177G,  is  nearly  related  to  the 
17th  of  June  preceding,  and  to  the  19th  of  April,  1775.  The  latter  of 
those  historic  days  is  commemorated  all  the  way  from  Camltridge  to 
Jjcxington,  with  enthusiasm  scarcely  surpassed  by  that  which  is  c(jnnnon 
to  our  country  on  this  national  holiday.  The  first  martyrs  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution  were  found  in  that  vicinity ;  and  the  fair  heritage  which 
they  have  left  to  their  descendants  is  pre-eminently  precious  on  that 
account.  Where  now  are  seen  richly  cultivated  gardens,  and  splendid 
villas,  and  populous  villages,  resistance  to  royal  authority  was  manifes- 
ted in  deeds  of  heroic  daring  and  sacrifice,  that  have  rendered  the  names 
of  those  men  immortal. 

The  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  as  is  well  known,  was  a  significant  preface 
to  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  It  was  a  contest  indicative  of  what 
was  to  be  hazarded  by  those  then  espousing  the  cause  of  freedom. 

When  the  representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America,  in  Gen- 
eral Congress  assembled,  appealing  to  the  Supreme  Judge  of  the  world 
for  the  rectitude  of  their  intentions,  did,  in  the  name  and  by  the  author- 
ity of  the  good  people  of  these  colonies,  solemnly  publish  and  declare 
that  these  united  colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  Free  and  Inde- 
pendent States — and,  for  the  support  of  this  declaration,  with  a  firm 
rehance  on  the  protection  of  Divine  Providence,  mutually  pledged  to 
each  other  their  lives,  their  fortunes  and  their  sacred  honor — it  was  a 
day  of  trial,  clearly  confessed.  Their  deliberations  for  weeks  in  the 
State  House  in  Philadelphia  bore  witness  to  the  heroism  with  which 
they  met  the  perils  of  their  position.  Their  words  thus  had  meaning 
which  we  do  well  to  remember ;  for  their  lives,  and  property,  and  repu- 
tation, were  at  stake  in  giving  their  signature  to  that  solemn  covenant. 
And  our  patriot  sires  throughout  the  land  so  understood  it,  when  they 
ratified  at  once  the  bold  announcement.  With  what  heartiness  did  they 
rush  to  the  support  of  those  principles,  cost  what  it  might !  The  pre- 
sumption was  that  many  of  them  would  be  called  to  expend  both  their 
treasure  and  their  blood  in  the  fearful  conflict.  Whether  even  that 
would  avail  for  the  maintenance  of  freedom,  was  no  trivial  question. 


THE     CELEBRATION.  103 

Yet  "  sink  or  swim,  live  or  die,  survive  or  perish,"  they  were  resolved 
on  standing  for  the  right,  while  they  should  stand  at  aU.  No  sooner, 
therefore,  had  the  liberty  bell  rung  out  the  tidings  from  the  tower  of 
the  old  State  House,  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  passed, 
than  a  multitude,  anxiously  awaiting  the  decision  of  that  grave  question, 
shouted  theii'  approval  in  one  prolonged  acclaim.  How  admirable  the 
coincidence,  tliat  the  very  motto  on  that  bell  was  the  inspired  sentence, 
"  Proclahn  liberty  throughout  all  the  land  unto  all  the  inhabitants 
thereof."  Who  could  fail  of  hearing  a  summons  to  that  effect,  as  ap- 
pealing to  the  patriotism  of  an  oppressed  people  !  Wliat  excitement 
must  have  reigned  throughout  the  city  as  the  report  of  cannons,  the 
blazmg  of  bonfii-es,  and  an  illumination  at  night,  combined  in  signalizing 
the  event.  And  as  the  news  spread  all  over  the  country,  what  terror, 
as  well  as  courage,  must  have  been  inspired.  Think  of  the  appalling 
hardships  to  be  encountered,  the  perplexity  and  distress  inevitably  to  be 
experienced,  and  the  jiainful  sacrifices  to  be  endmx'd  by  many,  before 
the  peaceful  fruits  of  independence  would  be  secured.  Ah,  it  was  to 
be  no  mere  semblance  of  strife  with  the  mother  country — no  luxurious 
state  of  things  in  court,  or  camp,  or  home  experience,  for  the  people  of 
these  colonies  at  the  time.  Should  they  succeed  in  absolving  themselves 
from  all  allegiance  to  the  British  Crown,  and  in  establishing  their  free- 
dom as  a  nation,  it  would  be  an  expensive  achievement  at  the  best. 
How  much  blood  must  flow — how  much  treasure  must  be  expended — 
how  many  homes  must  become  houses  of  mourning  I  Taking  the  most 
hopeful  view  of  the  case  which  reason  afforded,  heroic  souls  were  they 
who  could  look  through  the  gloom  to  the  gloiy  beyond  ! 

But  we  bless  Heaven  that  there  were  men,  whom  we  fondly  call  our 
fathers,  who  were  fit  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  providential  purpose. 
Whatever  we,  their  natural  offspring,  may  be  ready  to  do  or  to  decline 
in  the  cause  of  freedom,  they  dared  to  do  right,  yea,  to  speak,  and  to 
act,  to  live  and  to  die  for  popular  liberty.  Honored  be  their  memories 
till  the  end  of  time. 

What  an  mheritance  is  this  which  has  descended  to  us  from  our  Revo- 
lutionary ancestors — ^what  a  countiy — what  a  constitution  of  government 
— what  physical,  and  intellectual,  and  commercial  resources !  Where 
on  the  face  of  the  globe  is  there  a  combination  of  such  advantages  for 
the  masses  of  the  people,  comparable  with  these  ?  Who  can  conceive 
of  a  fairer  field  for  greatness  in  all  the  essential  elements  of  national 
success  ?     How  has  our  population  increased  in  eighty-four  years,  from 


104  THE     CELEBUATIUN  . 

less  than  four  millions  to  more  than  tliirty  millions !  True,  sadly  true, 
reproiulifuUy  and  most  criminally  true,  four  millions  of  these  are  slaves  ! 
And  were  that  fact  without  a  hope  of  rev'^crsal,  the  doom  of  America 
would  bo  deeper  than  that  of  Sodom.  ]iut  there  is  a  spirit  of  revival 
abroad  in  the  land  in  relation  to  the  inalienable  riu;hts  of  men,  as  pro- 
fessed by  our  fathers  in  their  ever  memorable  Declaration ;  nor  will  it 
cease  till  the  General  Government  is  brought  into  consistency  with  those 
fundamental  principles  that  are  in  harmony  with  the  law  of  God,  and 
are,  in  fact,  immortal !  No  treason  is  it  to  be  true  to  Immanity  in  all 
its  forms,  recognizing  everywhere  the  brotherhood  of  the  race.  Nor 
may  secessionists  expect  the  majority  of  the  freemen  of  these  United 
States  to  resign  their  rights  of  free  speech,  and  free  press,  and  election 
to  public  office  of  sucli  men  as  will  administer  the  affairs  of  government 
in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  its  illustrious  founders. 

Let  no  fanatical  sentiments  of  insurrection  he  encouraged,  and  no  in- 
vasion upon  the  constitutional  prerogatives  of  individual  States,  but  let 
freemen  speak  and  act,  as  now  they  may,  throughout  our  widely  ex- 
tended country,  in  favor  of  what  is  due  to  all  classes,  and  right  for  all, 
as  approved  of  Heaven,  and  this  year  will  be  signalized  a  century  to 
come,  with  some  of  the  thankfulness  which  is  cherished  towards  177(). 

The  twelfth  sentiment  was — 

The  Commouwealth  of  Massachusetts. 

The  thirteenth  sentiment  was — 

Our  Common  Country. 

Owing  to  the  lateness  of  the  hour,  these  two  regular  toasts 
were  not  responded  to,  but  instead  thereof,  the  President  read 
the  following  letter  from  Ex-Gov.  Clifford  : 

New  Bedfoed,  June  29, 1860. 

Rev.  and  Dear  Sik, — On  my  return  last  evening,  after  an  absence  of 
several  weeks,  I  found  the  invitation  with  which  the  Committee  of  Ar- 
rangements have  honored  mo,  to  be  present  at  the  proposed  celebration 
in  Sookonk,  on  the  4th  of  July  next. 

I  need  not  assure  you,  sir,  who  know  so  well  my  afiection  for  the  spot 
where  my  loved  and  honored  mother  was  born  and  died,  that  there  is 
no  occasion  of  this  nature  which  I  should  participate  in  with  more  sat- 
isfaction, if  it  were  practicable  for  me  to  do  so.     But  my  iHofessional 


THE     CELEBRATION.  105 

engagements  require  my  presence  at  Tsantncket  next  week,  to  attend  tlio 
Supreme  Court,  and  I  am  most  reluctantly  compelled  to  forego  the  pleas- 
ure to  which  the  Committee  have  so  kindly  invited  me. 

With  my  thanks  to  them  for  their  remembrance  of  me  on  an  occasion 
of  so  much  interest,  and  with  my  best  wishes  for  a  most  successtul 
celebration,  I  am,  dear  sir, 

Your  friend  and  obedient  servant, 

JOHN  II.  CLIFFORD. 
To  Rev.  Jajies  0.  Barnky. 


Joseph  Brown,  Esq.,  of  Seekonk,  then  gave  an  interesting' 
history  of  some  curiosities  which  were  to  be  seen  in  the  tent. 
These  articles  were : 

Five  chairs  which  were  occupied  by  General  Washington  and 
his  staff,  when  they  stopped  in  Coventry,  Rhode  Island,  on  their 
march  froin  Boston  to  New  York  ;  also  a  stand  and  a  table  which 
were  in  the  room  where  Washington  lodged  on  that  occasion. 

The  identical  chair  in  which  King  Philip  sat,  near  by,  when 
the  town  was  burnt  by  the  Indians,  in  1676.  This  chair  ori-n- 
nally  belonged  to  Preserved  Abel,  an  early  settler ;  and  before 
any  difficulties  had  arisen  with  the  Indians,  whenever  King  Philip 
visited  the  "  ring  of  the  town,"  he  always  called  on  Mr.  Abel, 
and  was  offered  the  compliment  of  sitting  in  this  "  big  arm  chair." 

There  was  also  exhibited  the  original  iron  kettle  or  stew  pot 
once  owned  by  King  Philip,  and  in  which  he  had  cooked  many 
a  muskrat  in  his  wigwam  at  Mount  Hope.  It  has  been  pre- 
served one  hundred  and  eighty-four  years. 

The  sword  worn  by  Sir  William  Pepperell  at  the  capture  of 
Louisburg,  in  1745. 

Six  silver  service  cups,  presented  to  the  original  church  as 
follows : 

One  by  Capt.  Thomas  Willet,  in  lt)74  ; 

One  by  Rev.  Noah  Newman,  in  1678  ; 

One  by  Mr.  Samuel  Newman,  in  1747  ; 

One  by  Mrs.  Mary  Walker,  in  1748 ; 

One  by  Mr.  Edwin  Glover,  in  1751 ; 

One  by  Mr.  David  Perrin,  in  1754. 


lOG  THE     CELEBRATION. 

These  and  otlier  articles  descending  from  "  days  of  yore  " 
•were  exi)laincd  in  an  able  and  intelligent  manner  by  Mr.  Urowx, 
the  Cliairuian  of  the  Committee,  and  was  listened  to  with  pro- 
found attention  and  visibly  deep  interest. 

After  this  exhibition  of  anti([ue  articles,  the  whole  congrega- 
tion united  in  singing  the  following  Ode,  originally  written  by 
AYilliara  J.  Pabodie  of  Providence  for  another  purpose,  but  al- 
tered to  meet  this  occasion.  It  was  sung  in  the  tune  called  "  Old 
Hundred,"  in  which  more  than  a  thousand  voices  united  ;  and 
under  the  sympathetic  influence  of  surrounding  circumstances, 
producing  a  most  thrilling  effect — many  old  patriotic  saints  giv- 
ing vent  to  their  emotions  by  calling  it  a  "  heaven  upon  earth." 

From  ihvellings  by  tlie  stormy  deep,  And  yet  a  nobler  boon  is  ours  ; 

Fronri  city's  mart  and  forest  side,  Our  fathers  souj^lit  in  sore  distress, 

From  shadowy  vales  that  softly  sleep  Fi-om  lands  where  stern  oppression  lowers, 

By  Narragansett's  storied  tide, —  A  refuge  in  a  wilderness. 

Home  to  this  church,  great  God  !  we  come,  They  came,  they  sulTered,  and  they  died  ; 

Blost  with  Thy  rich  and  bounteous  store  :  Yet  phmteil  here  a  drathless  tree. 

Beneath  yon  broad,  majestic  dome,  Beneath  whose  branches   far  and  wide. 

Thy  praise  to  sing,  Thy  grace  adore  !  Resound  the  anthems  of  the  free  ! 

For  lo  !  where  once  the  savage  trod,  Theirs  was  the  stern  but  glorious  task. 
And  fiercely  wild  the  war whoo-p  rung, —  To  raise  its  branches  high  in  air  ; 

Where  darkly  o'er  th'  unl'urrowed  sod,  Yet  Europe's  millions  vainly  ask 

A  wilderness  its  shadows  flung —  Its  fruit  to  taste — its  shade  to  share  ; — 

Ten  thousand  peaceful  homesteads  rise  Be  oms  the  mission,  God  of  love, 

O'er  aU  this  broaii  and  peaceful  land  ;  To  cause  its  fragrant  boughs  to  spread. 

And,  jjointing  to  th'  eternal  skies,  Till  towering  every  land  above,. 

Thy  pillar'd  fanes  serenely  stand.  On  every  heart  its  dews  be  shed. 

Great  God  !  we  humbly  own  Thy  Name, 

Through  the  two  hundred  years  now  flown  ; 
And  may  our  children  own  the  same, 

Through  the  two  hundred  years  to  come. 

"When  the  melody  of  this  piety  and  patriotism  had  ascended 
to  its  congenial  regions,  the  Rev.  and  venerable  Dr.  Benedict, 
the  oldest  clergyman  present,  asked  of  God,  and  conferred  on 
all,  a  Parting  Blessing. 

Thus  concluded  these  interesting  festivities,  and  the  assembly 
dispersed, — each  individual  appearing  to  feel,  as  from  the  depths 
of  the  heart,  that  the  Historical  Celebration  of  July  4,  1^60,  on 
Seekonk  Plain,  Avas  an  occasion  to  be  remembered  for  the  re- 
mainder of  hfe. 


ANTI-ERRATUM. 

As   A   MERITED  COMPLIMENT  TO  THE   SKILL   AND  ACCURACY 

OF  THE  Printer,  the  Author  takes  pleasure 

IN  INSERTING   THIS   ARTICLE  INSTEAD  OP 
A   MUCH   LESS   AGREEABLE   ONE, 

CALLED  "Errata." 


GENERAL    INDEX. 


It  may  provoke  a  smile  to  meet  with  an  index  to  an  affair  like  this ;  bnt  the 
author  has  a  reason  for  it.  He  has  often  been  so  impatient  at  the  loss  of  time  in 
seeking  for  a  mere  date,  name,  or  isolated  fact,  in  larger  books  without  indexes, 
that  he  has  more  than  once  been  tempted  to  take  a  left-handed  oath  over  some 
Comic  Almanac  that  he  would  never  have  anything  to  do  with  the  production  of 
any  book,  however  small,  without  giving  it  an  index.  Feeling,  therefore,  some- 
thing of  the  full  weight  of  such  inconvenience,  and  also  the  responsibility  of  an 
oath  strongly  hinted  at  but  never  really  taken,  the  author  trusts  that  there  will 
not  be  much  disposition  to  find  fault  with  a  labor  which  costs  the  reader  nothing, 
and  may  add  to  his  convenience.  And  it  may  also  serve  to  help  extend  the  prac- 
tice by  others. 


Age — ages,  past,  present  and  future,  9, 
10, 19,  47. 

Antiquity,  33,  105. 

Angier,  Eev.  Samuel,  34. 

Attleborough,  37,  84.  89,  93. 

Amidown,  Ebenezer,  38. 

America,  12,  13,  14,  22,  23,  42,  57. 

Apostrophized  speech  from  the  depart- 
ed, 30,  31. 

Athente  et  Fasti  Oxonienses,  quoted 
from,  49. 

AtheniKum,  at  Boston,  55. 

Avery,  Mr.,  of  Norton,  56. 

Arnold,  Hon.  Samuel  G.,  quoted,  56. 

Authorities  referred  to,  57. 

Allen  Zachariah,  58. 

Autograph  of  Rev.  Samuel  Newman,  G2. 

Allen,  Dr.,  91. 

Abel,  Preserved,  105. 

Anvils,  97. 


B. 


Babylon,  alluded  to,  10. 

Baalbec,  alluded  to,  10. 

Banbury,  Eng.,  11,  (>'i. 

Bells,  drum  used  instead  of,  17,  32. 

Brown,  John,  18,  39. 

Bowen,  Richard,  19,  29,  36. 

Bcton,  25,  27,  40,  42,  44,  55. 


Benedict,  Rev.  Dr.  David,  26,  74,  78 ;  his 

speech,  82,  106. 
Burkley,  Rev.  Mr.,  33. 
Baptist,  25,  26,  35,  74. 
Barney,  Rev.  James  0.,36,  73,  74,  77,  79. 
Barrington,  37,  101. 
Blackstone,  Rev.  William,  37,  56. 
Boscobel,  43. 
Bacon,  Sir  Francis,  45. 
Ballot-box,  46. 
Band-box,  47. 
Ballot  and  Bullet,  46. 
Braiiitrec.  town  of,  54. 
Bullock,  Hon.  Xathaniel,  56. 
Bliss  Leonard,  historian,  58. 
Bradford,  William.  Gov.,  58,  77. 
Blodgett,  Rev.  Dr.  Constantine,  74,  77; 

his  speech,  87. 
Brown,  Joseph,  75,  105,  106. 
Bishop,  James  M.,  79. 
Benediction,  78. 
Bowen,  Dr.  Thomas,  90. 
Bridgham,  Dr.  Joseph,  90. 
Bucklin,Drs.,91. 
Bullock,  Drs.,  92. 
Blackington,  Dr.,  92. 
Blanding,  Drs.,  92. 
Billings,  Dr.,  92. 
Bliss,  Dr.  James,  92. 
Bolton,  Dr.  George  A.,  92. 
Bowen  Simeon,  Ms  speech,  93. 
Bunker  Hill,  102. 


110 


U  E  N  R  U  A  L     INI)  !•;  X  . 


c. 


t'offins  ami  Rliroiul.^,  11. 
<.)iuie,aTi  aiu'ient  one,  13. 
Com-onlaiK'i',  It.  21,  22,  29,31,  33,  49, 52, 

53,  54,  55. 
Colony,  Plviuouth,  16,  25,  27,  28,  53,  83, 

84. 
Colony,  Mass^achusottfi,  16,  18, 25,  28,  33. 
Connecticut,  13,  18,  28,  34,  96. 
Customs  anil  Habits  of  tlie  first  settlers 

of  the  town,  lit,  20,  21. 
Cooper,  Deii.  Thomas.  29,  32,  55. 
Carpenter,  Dea.  William,  29,  89. 
Communicatinn,  iniajrinary  one  from  the 

first  settlers,  30,  31. 
Cemetery  of  ancient  Rehoboth,  11, 29, 87. 
Carnes,  Rev.  John,  34. 
Cumberland,  37. 
Congress,  40,  96. 
Coin,  first  in  America,  &c.,  42,  43,  44,  45, 

46. 
Cromwell.  Oliver,  43. 
C;harle.s  11.,  43. 
Cartridge-box,  46. 

Compact,  or  first  law  of  the  town,  50. 
Cruden,  Alexander,  53,  57. 
Cygnea  Cantio,  a  book,  54. 
Cape  Cod,  59. 

Concluding  note,  i)ersoual,  60. 
Creed  of  the  author,  61. 
Celebration,  history  of,  71. 
Committee  of  Arrangements,  75,  79. 
Carpenter,  Dr.  Benoni,  his  speech,  89, 

100. 
Carpenter,  Drs.,  92. 
Childs,  Rev.  A.  C,  his  speech,  99, 
Clififord,  John  H.,  Ex-Gov.,  104. 


D. 


Dorchester,  alluded  to,  13, 14,  27,  28,  55, 

Drum,  17,  32. 

Dedham,  18,  27. 

Diary,  extract  from  Newman's,  23. 

Death  of  the  founder  of  Rehoboth,  32. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  42,  44,  45, 
74,  77,  93,  94,  102. 

Daggett,  Hon.  John,  extract  from  his  his- 
torical paper  before  the  Old  Colony 
Society,  52,  55  ;  his  speech,  84- 

Dimond,  Hon.  Bvron,  56. 

Dinner,  the,  78,  79. 

Dean,  Rev.  James,  79, 

Davenport,  Dr.,  92. 

Dean,  Rev.  Sidney,  Ms  speech,  90. 


E. 


Elliot,  Rev.  Dr.  John,  32. 

Ellis,  Rev.  John,  34,  35. 

Education,  40. 

Europe,  22,  106. 

Ezekiel,  the  propliet,  42,  43. 


Empire,  Western,  41,  «4. 
Eagle,  )iroi)hetic,  44,  45. 
Edniond,  Sir  Thomas, 54, 
Ellis,  William,  75. 
Egypt,  101. 

F. 

Featly,  Rev.  Dr.  Daniel,  12,  49.  53,  54. 

Freeiiom,  45,  97,  99. 

Frozen  North,  45. 

Flint,  Rev.  Henry,  54,  62. 

Freeiiom,  human,  enigma  of,  45. 

Kitts,  Joseph  H.,  75. 

Fitts,  Dea.  1).  I}.,  7K. 

F'owler,  Dr.  Isaac,  92. 

France,  54,  98. 


G. 


Gouge,  Rev.  William,  12,  49,  53,  54. 

Goldsmith,  Oliver,  27. 

German  University,  33. 

Greek  Classics,  33. 

Grave,  33,  38,  39,  84. 

Greenwood,  Rev.  Thomas,  34. 

Greenwood,  Rev.  John,  34. 

Genesis,  quoted  from,  15. 

Gorton,  Samuel,  of  Rhode  Island,  56. 

Government,  the  first  adopted  at  Ply- 
mouth, 41,  58. 

Genealogical  tables  of  one  family  from 
each  of  seven  generations,  62. 

Gardner,  Hon.  Johnson,  74,  77. 

Gardiner,  E.  R.,  reporter,  75. 

Garibaldi,  Gen.,  98. 


H. 

Hull,  Rev.  Joseph,  14. 

Hingham,  14. 

Houses,  how  built,  19. 

Hour-glass,  to  preach  by,  17. 

Holmes,  Obadiah,  25,  26,  27. 

Hermon,  dews  of,  28. 

Hyde,  Rev.  Ephraim,  34,  56. 

Hill,  Rev.  John,  35. 

Historical  Society,  R.  I.,  58. 

Historical  Magazine,  60. 

Hollis,  Thomas,  memoirs,  60. 

Hovt.  Isaiah,  75. 

Hulchings,  Dr.  Theophilus,  91- 

Hartshorn,  Dr.  Isaac,  92. 

Historical  Society,  Ct.,  96. 

Historical  Society,  Mass.,  49,  57. 

Horton,  Rev.  Francis,  his  speech,  101. 

Habeas  corpus,  98. 

Homer,  28. 


Independence, Declaration  of,  42.  41,  45, 

74,  77,  93,  94,  102. 
Indians,  18,  23,  56,  80, 105. 
Italy,  98. 


GENERAL     INDEX 


111 


J. 


Jenncr,  Rev.  Thomas,  14. 

Joshuii,  15. 

Job,  last  sermon  of  Newman  pieacbei 

from,  31. 
Jobusou,  Dr.  Artemas,  92. 


K. 


Karuak,  alluded  to,  10. 

King  James  of  England,  54,  58,  59. 

King's  College,  54. 

King  William  111.,  55. 

King  John  of  England,  98. 

King  George  III.,  101. 


Laud,  Archbishop,  1,3. 
Lenthal,  Rev.  Robert,  14. 
Latin  epitaph,  33,  56. 
Leyden,  41,  58. 
Liberty,  i  iddle  of,  43. 
Lightning,  political,  4(5. 
Lebanon,  cedar  of,  44. 
Lempriere's  Biog.  Diet.,  49,  54. 
Lord's  Prayer,  54,  61. 


51. 

Mather,  Rev.  Dr.  Cotton,  11, 12, 32  56  59 
Magnalia,  11,56,  57,  59.  ' 

Midhope  Chapel,  Eng.,  13. 
Mather,  Rev.  Richard,  13,  14,  27,  28. 
Massasoit,  the  Indian  Chief,  15,  51,  78. 
Meetings  and  Meeting-houses,  16,  17, 19 
82,  97.  '      '      .      , 

Mr.  and  Mrs.,  what  called,  19, 

Miles,  Rev.  John,  33. 

Mayflower,  36,  41,  58,  85,  93,  96. 

Manhattan,  38. 

Mount  Vernon,  47. 

Millenium,  political,  46. 

Mather,  Rev.  Dr.  Increase,  49. 

Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  49. 

Money,  Indian,  51. 

Mason,  Rev.  Perez,  79;  his  speech,  80. 

Maxcy,  Rev.  Dr.  Jonathan,  86. 

Miller,  Drs.  91. 

Manchester,  Dr.,  92. 

Magna  Charta ,  98. 

Mamelukes,  101. 

Mount  Moriah,  101. 

Martin,  Dr.  Calvin,  100. 

Mount  Hope,  105. 


Nature,  9, 10,  37,  39,  68. 

Newman,  Rev.  Samuel,  son  of  Richard 

11,13,14,15,21,28,31,32,49,50,52,' 

53,55,56,57,61. 


New  England,  cnstoms  of,  Ac,  17,33,38 

43,  49. 

Newman,  Rev.  Noah,  23,  33,  55,  105. 

Nestor,  28. 

Norton,  Rev.  John,  28. 

Neander,  Michael,  33. 
Narragausett,  3H,  106. 
New  York,  3H,  58. 
Norton,  town  of,  56. 
Newman.  Rev.  Antipas.  54,  62. 
Newman,  Dea.  Samuel.  54,  62. 
Newman,  Richard,  11,  62. 
Napoleon,  101, 


0. 


Oxford,  Eng.,  11, 12,  53,  54. 

Otis,  James,  40. 

Oak,  Royal,  43. 

Office,  robes  of,  46;  potage  of,  47. 

Old  Burying  Ground  at  Seekouk,  55. 

Ode  and  Old  Hundred,  106. 


P 


Payne,  Stephen,  18,  10,  20,  53. 
Premonition,  33. 
Philip,  King,  .37,  85,  105. 
Payne,  Nathaniel,  38. 
Plymouth,  41,  58.  93   96. 
Pil2r- 


„      -  people,  45. 

Pawtucket,  74.  78,  79,  95. 

Pearse,  Robert  ;\I.,  75. 

Perrin,  Daniel,  78. 

Papers,  Reporters,  &c.,  75,  note. 

Pisrce,  dipt.  .Mitchell,  his  fight,  85. 

Pyramids,  101. 

Pepperell,  .Sir  William,  105. 

Pabodie,  William  J.,  106. 


Q. 


Quadrennial  spasms,  46. 
(iuincy,  tow»  of,  54. 


R. 

Rubens,  the  painter,  10. 
Raphael,  the  painter,  10. 
Rehoboth,  15,  25,  20,  27,  49,  51,  52,  53. 

56,  57,  61,  86,  94,  97. 
Read,  John,  29. 

King  of  the  town,  15,  21,  86,  105. 
Revolution,  contributions   from   Reho- 

both,  39,  40,  4L 
Republic,  American,  41,  45,  46,  47. 
Robinson,  Rev.  John,  41,  58. 
Kiddle,  on  a  coin,  iZ. 


112 


GENERAL     INDEX 


Royal  Oak  at  Bopcobel,  43. 

Rights,  human,  4."),  101. 

Ridley.  Dr.,  anecdote  of  pig  corn,  91. 

RodlifT,  Dr.  John  F.,  [born  in  Germany,] 

02. 
Robertson,  Dr.,  02. 

Rhodes,  Rev.  Andrew  H.,  his  speech,  100. 
Russia,  'J8. 


Science,  9, 10,  93,  97. 

Skeletons  and  Bones,  11. 

Seekonk,  15,  37,  55,  71,  95,  107. 

Sam,  an  Indian,  naturalized,  18, 19. 

Stone,  Rev.  Samuel,  28. 

Stiles,  Rev.  President,  28,  56. 

Spiritualism,  29. 

Symes,  Rev.  Zachariah,  33. 

Swansea,  37,  92. 

Starkweather,  Epliraira,  39,  83. 

Starkweather,  Hon.  Samuel,  83. 

Starkweather,  James  0.,  83. 

"Soul  Liberty,"  25. 

Shilling,  the  cedar  or  pine  tree,  42,  60. 

Spasms,  political,  4G. 

Southern  States, dark  clouds, but  harm- 
less thunder,  45,  46. 

Signers  to  the  first  government  of  the 
town,  50;  at  Plymouth,  59. 

Stockholders,  what  were  they?  51. 

Sears's  Olden  Time,  51. 

Shove,  Rev.  George,  54,  62. 

Stowell,  Rev.  A.  H.,  74,  77. 

Smith,  Dr.  Nathan,  86,  90, 

Stanley,  Dr.,  92. 

Slaves'in  IT.  S.,  99,  104. 

Stew-pot,  King  Philip's,  105. 


Time,  9,  10. 

Thebes,  10. 

Titian,  the  painter,  10. 

Townsmen,  instead  of  Selectmen,  16. 

Toleration,  25. 

Temple,  Sir  Thomas,  43. 

Taunton,  Indian  name  of,  52;  tliirdmin- 

ister  of,  54. 
Thaver,  Rev.  William  M.,^7. 
Turner,  Dr.  David,  90. 
Thurber,  Dr.  Daniel,  90. 
Thayer,  Dr.,  92. 
Taunton  and  Tauntonians,  52,  96. 


U. 


University,  Harvard,  34,  49. 
Uiiiver'iitv,  Brown,  30,  39,  61,  86. 
University,  Oxford,  Eng.,  11,  12,  49,  53. 
University,  Ilfeldt,  in  Germany,  33. 
University,  Cambridge,  Eng.,  52. 
Union,  American,  41,  46. 


V. 


Vox  Dei,  or  voice  of  God,  44. 

Vox  populi,  or  voice  of  the  people,  44. 

Vernon,  Slount,  47. 

Vista  of  ages,  47. 

Virginia,  early  name  of  New  England, 

58. 
Virgil,  quotation  from,  61. 


W. 

Warham,  Rev.  John,  13. 

Wcvmouth,  14,  21,  51,  55. 

Wifliams,  Rev.  Roger,  25,  37,  51,  56,  57, 

78. 
Wheaton,  Robert,  29. 
Warren,  37. 

Willet,  Thomas,  38,  58,  105. 
West,  Benjamin,  38,  86. 
Worcester,  battle  of,  43. 
Washington,  47,  105. 
Woman,  47. 
World,  Eastern.  45. 
World,  entire,  26,  37,  97. 
Wood,  Anthonj',  49. 
Wampum,  Indian  money,  51. 
Will,  Rev.  Samuel  Newman's,  54,  55. 
Wight,  Rev.  Dr.  Henry,  55. 
Wenham,  Mass.,  54,  62. 
Winthrop,  Gov.,  62. 
Willard.  George  ().,  79. 
Wheaton,  Dr.  Levi,  91. 
Winslow,  Drs.,  92. 
Wheelock,  Dr.,  92. 
Wilkinsoa,  Judge  Ezra,  95. 
Warren,  Gen.  Joseph,  102. 


Y. 

Young's  Chronicles,  57. 
Yale  College,  83. 


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